BREAKING
UP Assembly Polls: Titans BJP and SP To Clash: Congress Will Be a Minor AllyRam Gopal Varma’s Police Company Release Date Is OutIndian Racing Festival 2026: F4 title battle and IRL season opener head to ChennaiMajor blow for India as Hardik Pandya unlikely to be in action before IPL 2027Outer space should remain realm for corporation, not conflict: MP Sudha Murty tells UNGADaler Mehndi Uttarakhand controversy explained: What happened on stage and who said what‘I’m not a travel agent’: Tharoor on Rahul Gandhi’s foreign tripICC announces schedule for 2027 Under-19 Women’s T20 World Cup in Bangladesh and NepalSeveral houses torched in abandoned Manipur village amid ethnic tensionsFinance Influencer V Harish Dies by Suicide; Father Alleges Harassment by Tech CEO
Technology

ChatGPT Gets PIN and Face ID Lock for Private Chats

hellohimachalse@gmail.com 21 Oct 2026 1 hour ago

OpenAI has launched a feature called Locked Chats for ChatGPT. This new tool gives users another way to keep conversations private and away from people who might be looking. The feature is meant for situations where users might talk about matters, store important details or even make plans, for a surprise. They don’t want those chats to be seen when someone else uses their device.

Users can keep conversations safe by using a special four-digit code. On devices that support it people can also use Face ID or Touch ID to unlock their messages.

How Locked Chats work

Once a conversation is locked it goes away from the chat history that shows up in the sidebar. It also stops showing up in pinned conversations or regular chat searches. Instead, the conversation is placed in a section called Locked Chats. This section is separate. The conversation stays there until the user decides to unlock it.

The feature is not the same as Temporary Chats. Temporary Chats are made for conversations that are not kept in the user’s history and eventually go away. Locked Chats are. Can be used again after the user signs in.

Private memory for locked conversations

OpenAI is also separating memory associated with locked conversations. If ChatGPT’s Memory feature is enabled, information from Locked Chats is stored in a separate memory space shared only with other locked conversations.

Messages sent after a conversation is locked can therefore update this memory without affecting the user’s regular ChatGPT memory. However, locking a conversation does not erase information that ChatGPT had already remembered before the chat was moved into the section.

Locking a chat does not mean encryption

Users should not mistake the new feature for an encrypted vault. OpenAI says locking a conversation does not provide end-to-end encryption or create a separately encrypted storage area.

The feature also does not change how long OpenAI retains chat data or alter the “Improve the model for everyone” training setting associated with an account.

There is another important warning: do not forget the PIN. If a user forgets the four-digit PIN and chooses to reset it, OpenAI will permanently delete the locked chats, hidden files and private memories associated with the old PIN. The company says this action cannot be reversed, and customer support cannot restore the deleted content.

Availability

Locked Chats are rolling out across the web, Mac and Windows desktop apps, as well as iOS and Android. The feature is expected to be available across most ChatGPT plans, including Free, Go, Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Edu.

However, it is not available on the ChatGPT, for healthcare plans. People also cannot lock Temporary Chats, archived chats, group conversations or chats created through links.

As the rollout began on Tuesday, some users may have to wait a few days before the option appears on their accounts.

Related News