Option to set an alternative passcode ("double bottom") that either opens a limited set of chats, opens a different account, or destroys one of the connected accounts completely when entered.
Use cases
Could be used by political activists in opressive countries when they are required to unlock their chats.
Potential issues
If such an emergency passcode is set, the app won't be able to use your fingerprints or other biometric data to unlock chats. As a result, the absense of biometric unlock could be used a clear indicator that a person has something significant to hide – and it becomes impossible to prove this is not the case.
This might provide a false sense of security and might actually make the situation worse for an activist's or an innocent bystander.
An endlessly pressing problem for all politically active people in Russia. The police force you to show all correspondence, which is very problematic to hide in advance, because... you never know when it will happen.
Ludovico
This function is strongly necessary, in particular as long as it includes also the possibility to delete for both parties and also from the server using a fake unlock. Just look what's happening in Russia...
Hey Roman, this proposal (Emergency passcode to hide chats #2775 , the one we are commenting on) it's way more extensive with the possibility to delete, hide, or destroy messages or accounts. It's not just a "parental control" but also in the main part a fundamental feature for political activists. But in any case yes, people have been waiting for this since 2019! Telegram, time to implement!
S∆EiĐ
We can still be able to use the fingerprint, but instead we can just make it point to the account that we want, we can make it so the actual account can be opened only using passcode... This eliminate the problem that you mentioned above... In short we need the ability to set different accounts/action to use only the passcode and one single account to use the fingerprint.
𝐿𝑖𝑛𝑢𝑥 𝑢𝑠𝑒𝑟
it's already possible with third-party clients (like Telegraph)
P
Paul
This is so strange that this feature is still not implemented! We need this feature! Please just implement this in a way it's done in Watsapp.
P
Paul
I mean we need a "Locked chats" feature of Watsapp in Telegram. Pleease imeplement this!
Миша
Very good idea for Russia
A
Asif Mazin
biometric data to unlock issue can be solved by having one account as the default
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This eliminate the problem that you mentioned above...
In short we need the ability to set different accounts/action to use only the passcode and one single account to use the fingerprint.