News
WhatsApp Adds New Privacy Feature To Lock Sensitive Chats
The new setting lets users add conversations to biometrically locked folders and hide them from notifications.
WhatsApp has announced a new feature via its blog called “Chat Lock” that allows users to make their conversations more private. The tool can lock any conversation, placing it in a specialized folder accessible via fingerprint or face scanning biometrics or by entering a regular password. In addition, the new feature also hides references to locked chats from notification feeds.
To lock an existing conversation, users simply need to tap on the title of a person or group chat and select the lock option. When you want to read a locked chat, you’ll need to use your device’s biometric scanner to unlock it, or else enter a password.
WhatsApp notes that the feature is useful for keeping a chat private when “someone else is holding your phone at the exact moment an extra special chat arrives” and advises that the entire app can also be locked using biometric security.
Also Read: Saudi-Based Mozn Uses AI To Detect Money Laundering & Fraud
WhatsApp owners Meta have been upgrading the platform for some time now, in a bid to convince users of the app’s safety as more and more people turn to rivals such as Signal and Telegram. Meta recently upgraded WhatsApp’s verification system to deter hackers and has added additional features, including disappearing messages.
News
LUVED Is A New Curated Preloved Marketplace For The UAE
Sellers keep 100 percent of every sale and AI can build a listing in five seconds — though the app’s smartest tools are still coming.
Secondhand shopping has become mainstream in the UAE, but the experience is still scattered across resale sites, social media and informal group chats. LUVED, a mobile-first marketplace that launched in Dubai this month, is betting it can pull that activity into one place — and that the thing buyers and sellers actually want is not more inventory, but trust.
The app trades in what it calls circular luxury: preloved fashion and lifestyle pieces across men’s, women’s and children’s categories, bought, sold or given away peer to peer. Its main pitch is economics, with sellers keeping 100 percent of every sale under a zero-commission, fast payout model, while buyers are promised vetted pieces at lower prices.
Where LUVED is staking its reputation is verification. Sellers pass a KYC check, and items run through a two-layer authentication system powered by Entrupy that pairs instant AI screening with human expert review for high-value pieces. Authenticity certificates travel with each item, payments sit in escrow, and a buyer-protection package the company calls The Safety Net adds a 48-hour return window and dispute resolution. Door-to-door logistics removes the in-person meetups that make most resale deals awkward.
An in-app assistant called Luvbot — offering selling insights and demand-based recommendations — is soon to be introduced to the platform. Other features include autofill and dynamic pricing that lets users build a listing in as little as five seconds from three photos, plus a swipe-based feed, story-style drops and in-app chat in English and Arabic. Finally, a gifting layer, Luved & Gifted, lets users pass items to others inside the app rather than sell them.
Also Read: Logitech’s New Folding Mouse Is Designed For Work On The Go
“After moving to Dubai, I saw how difficult it was to sell or even give things away,” says founder and CEO Shaima Sibtain. The friction is real, and so is the competition. In resale, trust is won transaction by transaction — and that is the test LUVED has set itself.
The app is live on the App Store now, with Google Play to follow. The company also plans to expand across the region, which will be the real test for a marketplace staking everything on trust.
