Facebook now allows you to add an extra layer of security when opening Messenger on an iPhone or iPad. Now the app itself can crash or shortly after closing, requiring you to use an authentication method like Face ID or Touch ID to reopen it. That means you could unlock your phone and let a friend borrow it, and that person still couldn’t access your Messenger chats.
The feature, which Facebook calls App Lock, is part of a series of small changes coming to Messenger focused on privacy and security. The app is also adding a Privacy section to the app’s settings, giving users a single location to control features like App Lock and which users they have locked. App Lock is supposed to hit Android in “the next few months.”
Facebook also mentioned some additional features that it plans to start testing soon. It will begin to give users more control over who can send them messages (the company did not offer many details on how this will work), and it will begin to blur the photos of people who send you messages without their approval so that you do not. You have to open a potentially troublesome image just to see a new message and know if you want to chat with someone. A similar feature is now available on Instagram and WhatsApp. Facebook did not say when it would start reaching Messenger.
