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Chrome for Android has received an interesting new functionality. You can now protect your Incognito tabs in Chrome on Android with a fingerprint, as many of you protect your phone from prying eyes.
You can now place your Incognito tabs behind a fingerprint in Chrome for Android
This feature was spotted last year, but it was not ready for primetime. Well, now it is. The feature is rolling out to the stable channel as we speak. One thing to note is that Android is not the first OS to get it. This feature has been available on iOS since 2021.
So, if you have this feature activated, you’ll be asked for a fingerprint every time you return to your Incognito tabs (after you leave Chrome). Do note that force closing Chrome will still remove all Incognito pages.
If you’d like to enable this feature, you’ll need to navigate to Chrome Settings on your phone, and then to the ‘Privacy and security’ menu. In there, you’ll see the option to lock Incognito tabs when you leave Chrome.
This seems to be a server-side change
This seems to be a server-side change, though. Chrome is on the last version on two of my devices, and I still don’t have the feature. That leads me to believe that it’s not related to an actual app update, but a server-side change. In other words, some of you will have to wait a bit until you receive it. Do note that enabling or disabling this feature requires verification.
All in all, this may be a useful feature to some of you, even though it’s not a major change. It can be useful if you’re giving your phone to someone, for browsing purposes. This way you can make sure they won’t snoop around your incognito tabs.
It’s a bit shocking it took Google this long to roll it out on Android, though. It has been available to iOS users since February 2021, so for basically two years.
