GoKawiilEdgar Cervantes / Android Authority
TL;DR OpenAI has been spotted working on a new feature that would let you lock your chats. Locked chats could let you hide saved ChatGPT conversations from your sidebar, history, and search results behind a PIN or fingerprint.
Unlike Temporary Chats, locked chats are designed to stick around, giving users a way to save sensitive conversations without leaving them visible in their regular history.
Locked chats could also create a privacy boundary for Memory, letting new information from locked conversations personalize other locked chats without spilling into regular conversations.
Your ChatGPT history isn’t necessarily a record that you want to parade around. From the simple math problems that don’t require AI, to asking ChatGPT to craft an email calling in sick for a day off, and from more serious conversations about private projects, to chats about finances, there are plenty of conversations you might want to keep out of others’ line of sight. With what OpenAI has been spotted developing, keeping these chats away from prying eyes could soon become a lot easier.
For what it’s worth, ChatGPT already lets users leverage Temporary Chats for their sensitive questions. Those conversations aren’t saved to your ChatGPT history, making them great for topics that you don’t want leaving a trail. That, however, is also Temporary Chats’ biggest drawback: You can’t come back to these conversations in the future. This is where locked chats, an in-development feature spotted in the latest ChatGPT Android build, could come in.
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Digging through the app’s latest version 1.2026.230 release, we find evidence towards work on locked chats. It seems as though the feature would let you keep conversations hidden behind PIN or fingerprint authentication. It looks designed to keep chats out of the sidebar, chat history, and ChatGPT search results.
The new build contains some fully fleshed-out strings that appear to explain how locked chats will work:
Code Copy Text Locked chats Protect chats with a PIN or fingerprint. How do locked chats work? Lock a chat to keep its title and content out of view in your regular sidebar, history, and search results. You’ll need your PIN or fingerprint to open it.
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