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Chrome for Android will soon support locking Incognito tabs behind your lock/biometrics

Incognito mode on the Chrome browser can prove useful for a variety of reasons, and on Android, it may soon be picking up the ability to lock your tabs behind another layer of privacy.

A commit to the Chromium Gerrit spotted by ChromeStory shows that Google is working on bringing the ability to lock your Incognito tabs behind your lockscreen code and/or biometrics to Chrome for Android. This is a feature that we’re certainly not surprised to see the company working on because, just recently, the same feature was added to Chrome’s iOS version. On the iPhone, the feature locks tabs behind Face ID.

Enable device reauthentication for Incognito.

When enabled, a setting appears in Settings > Privacy and Security, to enable reauthentication for accessing your existing Incognito tabs. — Android

When might this feature make its way to Android users? It’s hard to say for sure. The feature is live in Chrome Canary but at this point is not working fully, with the feature’s actual toggle not yet appearing in the Settings menu once the flag is enabled. Presumably, it’ll be at least a few months before the feature rolls out to stable users.

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