ChatGPT Introduces Locked Chats: Secure Your Conversations with Face ID and PIN Protection

Locked Chats are now available in ChatGPT on iOS and Android. They help keep your conversations private. Source: AI

OpenAI has added a new privacy feature to help stop people from looking at your ChatGPT conversations when they use your smartphone. The feature is called Locked Chats. It lets you hide individual conversations and protect them with a lock. You can learn more in the official guide.

Lock your conversation history

The new feature lets you protect private conversations with a four-digit PIN. Locked conversations no longer appear in your regular chat history, pinned chats, or search results. Instead, they are kept in a separate section called Locked Chats. If you use ChatGPT on an iPhone or Android device, you can also unlock these conversations with Face ID or another biometric security system, so you do not have to enter your PIN every time.

This is another step in making ChatGPT a more advanced tool. For example, OpenAI recently introduced an interactive Intelligent UI for its new models. Now, the company is also making it easier to keep your AI conversations private from people who borrow or use your phone.

Privacy has limits

Even though these chats have a lock, that does not mean they are completely anonymous. OpenAI clearly says that this feature does not use end-to-end encryption. Your data is still stored on the company's servers and used to train models. This is common across the industry. As of October 2026, 7 out of 9 leading chatbots collect user data by default.

This matters even more because the European Union began fully enforcing the AI Act in August 2026. However, locking a chat only helps protect it from other people who might access your device. It does not protect your data from OpenAI itself or remove the company's legal obligations.

There is one important thing to remember: if you forget your PIN and choose to reset it, OpenAI will delete all your locked chats and any files uploaded to them. Support cannot restore them. So, make sure you remember your PIN or use biometric security instead.

Availability and limitations

OpenAI is releasing the feature gradually. It will be available to users on the free plan and to Go, Plus, and Pro subscribers. On mobile devices, you can also use voice mode in locked conversations. This is useful for people who like talking to AI while they are out and about. It may also help with professional work, such as developing drugs with AI agents, where a leak of private information could be very costly. However, there is one limitation: conversations in Codex cannot be locked with this feature yet.