Software
Facebook Messenger is now able to lock your chats behind the Face ID
Facebook now lets you add an extra layer of protection when you open Messenger on your iPhone or iPad. The app itself can now be locked on or shortly after closing, allowing you to use an authentication mechanism such as the Face ID or Touch ID to open it back up. It means that you could unlock your phone and let a friend borrow it, and that person would still not be able to access your Messenger chats.
The feature Facebook calls App Lock is one of a range of minor improvements coming to Messenger based on privacy and protection. The app also adds a Privacy section to the device settings, allowing users a single place to monitor features like Screen Lock and what users they've blocked.
App Lock is going to be coming to Android in "the next few months."
Facebook also listed some additional features that it expects to start testing soon. It's going to start giving users more power about who can contact them (the company didn't give a lot of information on how that would work), and it's going to start blurring images from people that are sending you a message without your permission so that you don't have to open a potentially intrusive picture just to see a new message and decide whether you want to talk with anyone. A similar functionality is also available for Instagram and WhatsApp. Facebook didn't specify when it was going to start appearing in Messenger.
