Home
How to
How to Features
How to Set Up WhatsApp's End to End Encrypted Chat Backups With a Passkey: A Step By Step Guide

How to Set Up WhatsApp's End-to-End Encrypted Chat Backups With a Passkey: A Step-By-Step Guide

You can now unlock your encrypted WhatsApp chat backup with your fingerprint, face recognition, or passcode.

Written by Sucharita Ganguly, Edited by David Delima | Updated: 31 October 2025 20:12 IST

How to Set Up WhatsApp's End-to-End Encrypted Chat Backups With a Passkey: A Step-By-Step Guide

Photo Credit: Pexels/ Anton

The feature, tested earlier in WhatsApp Beta, will roll out globally in the coming weeks

Click Here to Add Gadgets360 As A Trusted Source

Highlights

You can restore chats using fingerprint face or screen lock
Passkeys are securely stored in your password manager
The passkeys can replace passwords and 64-digit encryption keys

Meta has announced a new way to secure WhatsApp chat backups using passkeys, eliminating the need to remember passwords or 64-digit encryption keys. With this update, users can restore encrypted chats using their fingerprint, face, or screen lock. Unlike passwords, passkeys are stored in a password manager, allowing secure sign-ins across devices. The feature, tested earlier in WhatsApp Beta, will roll out globally in the coming weeks, enhancing end-to-end encryption first introduced in 2021. Here is how you can set this up on your Android or iOS device.

Setting Up WhatsApp Encrypted Chats with a Passkey: All You Need to Know

WhatsApp now lets users secure and restore their encrypted chat backups using passkeys, eliminating the need to remember passwords or long encryption keys. To enable the feature, open WhatsApp on your main device, go to Settings > Chats > End-to-end encrypted backup, and look for the option to turn on passkeys.

A passkey uses your fingerprint, face, or screen lock for verification and is securely stored in a password manager. Alternatively, users can protect their backups using a password or a 64-digit encryption key, which is a long, unique code automatically generated by WhatsApp. However, if you lose your password, encryption key, or passkey, WhatsApp will not be able to restore your backup.

You Can Now Protect WhatsApp Chat Backups With Passkey Encryption

As with most WhatsApp updates, Meta notes that passkey support for chat backups will roll out gradually over the next few weeks and months, so it may take some time before it appears for everyone.

You can follow these steps to create a passkey on your iPhone or Android smartphone:

How to Create a Passkey on WhatsApp

Open WhatsApp on your iPhone or Android smartphone.
Navigate to the settings menu and tap Account.
Tap Passkeys > Create Passkey > Continue.

Follow these instructions to use a passkey to unlock your end-to-end encrypted WhatsApp backup:

WhatsApp Will Soon Let You Reply, React to Messages Using Your Apple Watch

How to Set Up Encrypted WhatsApp Chat Backups With a Passkey

Open WhatsApp and navigate to the settings menu.
Tap Chats and select Chat backup.
Scroll down and tap End-to-end encrypted backup.
Select Use Passkey and follow the instructions on your screen.

It's worth noting that on iPhone, encrypted WhatsApp backups are excluded from the device's regular iCloud and iTunes backups.

Comments

Get your daily dose of tech news, reviews, and insights, in under 80 characters on Gadgets 360 Turbo. Connect with fellow tech lovers on our Forum. Follow us on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News for instant updates. Catch all the action on our YouTube channel.

Further reading: WhatsApp, whatsapp chat backup, WhatsApp end to end encryption, social media apps

Sucharita Ganguly

Email Sucharita Ganguly

Sucharita is a writer with Gadgets 360 and is mostly found playing with her cat in her free time. She has previously worked at breaking news desks across organizations. Powered by coffee, The Beatles, Bowie, and her newfound love for BTS, she aims to work towards contributing to a better media environment for women and queer folk. More