WhatsApp has recently come under a lot of fire for privacy-related reasons, with many users migrating to other encrypted messaging apps.

Yesterday (January 28), WhatsApp announced on its Facebook and Twitter feeds that it is adding a new layer of security by adding biometric user authentication to its desktop application and web interface.

Biometric security has been an optional feature of WhatsApp for some time (it is not turned on by default), but this is the first time that the link between cell phones and WhatsApp's desktop application can be protected.

It doesn't matter which biometric authentication method you choose: fingerprint, facial recognition, or Samsung's aging iris scanner; WhatsApp Web supports them all.

Judging from the instructions WhatsApp posted on its blog, the process is not much different from the WhatsApp Web setup. The steps are the same, but the WhatsApp app on your phone will prompt you to authenticate yourself using your phone's biometric login before scanning the QR code on the desktop screen to activate the link.

Of course, you must first set up biometric authentication on your phone.

WhatsApp promises that this feature is already live, but it does not appear to be live for everyone yet; even with fingerprint lock enabled in WhatsApp's settings, I was not prompted when I tried this feature. Please wait a while until this feature is released.

Now that we know that video and voice calls will be added to WhatsApp Web in the near future, this feature seems rather small in the grand scheme of things.

However, security is never too high, and if you set up a wireless link to view private conversations on other devices, you need to make sure everything is locked down tight.

However, we feel that more could be done: since WhatsApp Web remains logged in by default, anyone can access the conversations on your desktop.

It wouldn't hurt to have biometric authentication every time you open a WhatsApp Web tab, or at least an option to do so.

It is already too easy to hijack someone else's WhatsApp account if you can see their phone for just a few seconds, as security researchers demonstrated last year and fraudsters have since executed. (To prevent this from happening, you can set a PIN for your account.)

If that still isn't enough to keep you using WhatsApp, check out our WhatsApp alternative for Facebook-free communication.