Washington: WhatsApp is piloting a new privacy feature called Restricted Chat that lets users confine selected conversations to their primary phone, preventing them from syncing to linked devices such as computers, tablets or secondary phones. The feature, an upgraded version of WhatsApp's existing Advanced Chat Privacy tool, is currently rolling out to a limited pool of beta testers on Android (version 2.26.39.11) and iOS (version 26.39.10.20).

Once activated, a restricted chat can only be accessed and messaged from the primary device, cutting it off from WhatsApp Web, desktop apps and other linked connections. The setting is disabled by default and must be turned on individually from a chat's information screen; it currently works only for one-on-one conversations and is being rolled out gradually, with no confirmed date yet for a full public release.

Restricted Chat carries over the protections from Advanced Chat Privacy: media shared within the conversation won't auto-save to the device gallery, the chat can't be exported, and Meta AI features are disabled inside it. Notably, the linked-device restriction also blocks unofficial clients and AI agents that typically exploit linked-device access to read WhatsApp conversations, closing off that route for any chat with the feature turned on.

WhatsApp clarified that the feature is an added layer of privacy rather than a prerequisite for security, since all messages and calls remain protected by end-to-end encryption regardless of whether it's enabled. The renaming from Advanced Chat Privacy to Restricted Chat was intended partly to reinforce that standard WhatsApp conversations are already secure by default.

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