Can you lock AI assistant chats like ChatGPT?

What did ChatGPT just add with locked chats?

ChatGPT now lets you lock individual conversations so they stay hidden when someone else is looking at your screen. OpenAI started rolling the feature out on October 20, 2026, to Free, Go, Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Edu users. It works on the web, in the Android and iOS apps and in the desktop apps for Mac and Windows. The pitch is refreshingly modest. Maybe you're planning a surprise party, or you've asked about something personal, and then you hand your phone to a friend to show them a recipe in another chat. A locked chat stays out of sight. It moves into its own Locked Chats section, away from your regular history, your pinned conversations and chat search, and its title stays hidden until you unlock it.

To unlock, you use a four-digit PIN, or Face ID or Touch ID on supported devices, and Android phones can use the fingerprint sensor. Setup takes seconds: open the chat, tap the three-dot menu, choose Lock chat, confirm, and create a PIN if you don't have one yet. Temporary Chats never show up in your history, but locked chats wait for you and you can go back to them whenever you like. Memory gets a thoughtful touch too. With memory turned on, locked chats share a memory of their own, so something you mention in a locked conversation won't turn up later in a normal one. That's exactly the kind of slip that ruins a surprise or starts an awkward conversation at dinner.

The fine print matters, and OpenAI is upfront about it. Locking a chat doesn't add end-to-end encryption or create an encrypted vault. It doesn't change how long the conversation is stored or whether it can be used to improve the model, and it doesn't erase anything ChatGPT remembered before you locked it. If you reset your PIN, rather than just changing it, every locked chat and its files are permanently deleted. Some chat types can't be locked at all, including temporary, archived and group chats. Put simply, it's a curtain, not a safe. That isn't a knock on it. A curtain is exactly what you need when your nephew is swiping through your phone looking for the photos you promised him.

When does locking an AI assistant chat actually help?

Locking an AI assistant chat helps most when other people physically use your phone. It does far less against hackers. Think about the moments that actually happen. Your partner grabs your phone to check the weather. A colleague swipes through your photos after a team dinner. Your kid borrows it for a game in the back seat. None of these is a data breach. The risk is someone casually opening an app and seeing a chat you'd rather keep to yourself. Your assistant chat is a prime candidate, because it's where you think out loud. You type things into it that you'd never post in a group, and you type them quickly, without polishing a word.

Look at what an assistant chat holds once you use it for personal admin. "Remind me to book the clinic follow-up on Thursday." "Note: Dana's surprise party is on the 14th, don't tell Tom." "Summarize this lease from the new landlord." "Remember my car insurance renews in March." None of these means much alone. Scroll through a month of them, though, and you get a detailed picture of someone's health, money, plans and work. A WhatsApp assistant is the same story in a different app. Reminders, notes and documents pile up in one thread that sits between your family group and your kid's football chat, one accidental tap away from whoever's holding your phone.

Here's my contrarian take: most people shouldn't lock every chat, and locking too much makes the feature worse. Lock everything and you'll be unlocking all day. You'll get annoyed and switch it off within a week, which leaves you with no protection at all. Lock only the chats where a glance from the wrong person would cause real trouble or spoil a surprise. For most busy owners and professionals that's a short list: one or two personal conversations, maybe a sensitive work thread, and the assistant chat that holds your life admin. The test is simple. Picture someone else scrolling it. If you feel a little jolt of panic, lock it. If you shrug, leave it alone.

How do you lock a WhatsApp chat with your AI assistant?

You lock a WhatsApp chat with your AI assistant the same way you lock any other chat. Long-press it in your chat list, tap the three-dot menu and choose Lock chat. WhatsApp moves it into a Locked chats folder that only opens with your phone's fingerprint, face unlock or passcode. The other side isn't told. Your assistant carries on as normal, and so would a person. WhatsApp has offered Chat Lock since May 2023, so if your assistant is a WhatsApp contact, as Agent Sonic is, you've had ChatGPT's newest trick for years without knowing it. Locked chats also close again when you lock your phone, so you never have to remember to re-lock anything.

The step most people skip is the one that matters most on a shared phone. By default, the Locked chats folder sits at the top of your chat list, which tells anyone looking that you have something locked. To hide it, open the Locked chats folder, tap the three-dot menu, go to Chat lock settings and set a secret code. Make it different from the code that unlocks your phone. It can be a short mix of letters, numbers and symbols, or even an emoji. Then turn on Hide locked chats. From then on, the folder only appears when you type your code into the search bar on the Chats tab. Type anything else and nothing shows up.

Once that's done, using your assistant barely changes. Open the locked folder, or search your code, and carry on: "Remind me to file the VAT return on the 15th," "What did I note about the supplier call last week?" or "Read this PDF and tell me the cancellation terms." Sonic replies in the same thread. There's nothing to install and no separate app to protect. If you haven't used a WhatsApp assistant yet, here's how Sonic works as a contact you simply message and what it can take off your plate. The real advantage is that one lock covers everything. Your reminders, notes, voice notes and the documents you've sent all sit in a single chat, behind a single code.

What doesn't WhatsApp Chat Lock protect you from?

WhatsApp Chat Lock stops casual snooping on your phone. It won't protect you from scams or account takeovers, and it won't stop anyone who knows your phone's passcode. If your partner knows your unlock code, they can open the locked folder unless you've also set a separate secret code and hidden it. The lock also has nothing to say about what you send in the first place. It hides the chat on your screen. It doesn't change what your assistant can see or keep, and that's a separate question you should answer on purpose. Before you forward contracts or bank statements, read up on what a WhatsApp AI assistant can see and keep and decide what stays out of the chat.

If you lean on reminders, there's a trade-off to know about. Notifications from a locked chat hide both the sender and the message. Instead of "Call the accountant at 9," you'll see something like "WhatsApp: 1 new message." That's great when your phone is lying face up on the kitchen table. It's less great when the whole point of the chat is to nudge you at the right moment. If you hide the folder too, those chats go even quieter. So decide which matters more to you, privacy or a reminder you can read at a glance. One option is to keep the assistant chat unlocked for reminders you'll actually see and keep sensitive notes out of it. The other is to lock it and open every mystery WhatsApp alert straight away.

The other trap is forgetting your secret code. WhatsApp won't just reset it for you. The only way back is to unlock and clear your locked chats, which puts them back in your normal chat list but deletes the messages, photos and videos inside. A recent chat backup can bring them back, so run one before you clear anything. For an assistant chat, losing the scroll-back is annoying but not a disaster. The chat history goes, but Sonic still remembers what you asked it to remember, and your reminders still go off. Even so, pick a code you'll actually remember. Don't use your birthday, and don't reuse the four digits that unlock your phone.

How do you keep AI chats private on a phone shared with family?

On a phone you share with family, privacy comes from a few small habits, not one big setting. Start with the basics. Lock your assistant chat, set a secret code and hide the locked folder, so the chat simply isn't there for anyone who borrows your phone. Then use your phone's own tools. Most phones can lock the screen to a single app before you hand it over. Android calls it app pinning, and on an iPhone it's Guided Access. That lets a child play a game without wandering into WhatsApp, and it takes two seconds. If your kids are on your phone every day, though, their own tablet or a separate user profile beats any clever lock.

Next, think about what you type, not only where it ends up. Your assistant rarely needs the most sensitive version of a note. "Remind me about the appointment Thursday at 4" works just as well as naming the clinic and the reason. For surprises, use code names: "Remind me to pick up Project Balloon on Friday" gives nothing away, even if someone sees the alert. Voice notes help too. Sonic understands them, and nobody glancing at your screen can read a voice note. And once a document has done its job, say a contract you've already signed, delete that message from the chat. The less that sits in the thread, the less you have to hide.

Last, move the shared stuff out of your private chat altogether. If the family keeps asking about the grocery list, the car service or who's paying for the holiday rental, add Sonic to a family WhatsApp group. There it keeps shared lists, runs polls, splits expenses and sends group reminders. The household admin lives where everyone can see it, and your personal thread stays personal. Want to try it? Get access to Sonic, and you'll get its number and a quick onboarding. Then send your first message: "Remind me every Sunday at 7 to check the family calendar." Lock that chat, set your secret code and hide the folder, and your admin stays private.

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