Ever wondered if there was a fingerprint lock for your Incognito tabs in Chrome? Google is finally bringing this feature to Chrome officially.
In a blog post, Google mentioned this new feature casually about “5 tips to stay safer online with Chrome”. It is an experimental feature and could be enabled via flags. Now, this feature is official on stable versions of Chrome on Android and iOS.
With this new feature, Chrome will lock the Incognito tabs behind fingerprint or biometric authentication when enabled. When you exit the Chrome browser to another app or home screen, the Incognito session will be accessible only after authenticating with biometrics. Chrome browser will show the ‘Unlock Incognito’ button. Clicking it will ask you to unlock the app with biometrics.
This feature is rolling out to all Chrome users in Android and iOS.
How to lock your Incognito session when you leave Chrome?
Here are the steps to lock your Incognito tabs after you leave Chrome.
- Open Settings in your Chrome.
- Go to Privacy & Security.
- Turn on “Lock incognito tabs when you close Chrome”.
- Now, open a new Incognito session.
- Go to Tab switcher.
- Tap on “Turn on Incognito Lock”.
- You’ll have to authenticate with biometrics.
If you don’t find the feature on Chrome, you can try enabling it using Chrome flags. Here’s how to do it:
- Enter this on Chrome:
chrome://flags/#incognito-reauthentication-for-android - Change the toggle from Default to Enabled.
- Click on Relaunch button to restart Chrome app.
- Now, enter Incognito mode.
- Select Tab switcher option.
- Tap on “Turn on Incognito Lock”.
- You’ll have to authenticate with biometrics.
