Incognito browsing doesn’t prevent your internet provider or others from tracking you, but it hides your history and cookies. Soon, you may be able to conceal incognito tabs from other Android users. Google has activated a new flag in stable Chrome that lets you lock incognito tabs using biometrics.
The feature isn’t publicly available yet, but you can enable it in Chrome 105 by visiting chrome:/flags/#incognito-reauthentication-for-android. After restarting your browser, you can lock incognito tabs in Chrome’s Privacy and security settings. Toggle this on, and you must unlock incognito tabs after leaving Chrome. You can close incognito tabs using the typical notice without unlocking.
Exiting Chrome locks Incognito tabs with fingerprint authentication. When you launch the browser to access these tabs, a grey screen with the Incognito logo appears. Tap “Unlock Incognito” to “Verify it’s you.” Bottom-left corner allows “Use PIN.”
The overflow menu remains in its usual position to “Close Incognito tabs.” (That should be behind a fingerprint lock.) This is helpful if someone doesn’t know your passcode. Settings > Privacy and security > Lock Incognito tabs when you leave Chrome on/off (Use screen lock to see open Incognito tabs).
Incognito’s fingerprint lock isn’t generally available yet, but you can enable it on recent versions of Android:
- chrome:/flags/#incognito-reauthentication-for-android
The flag is already in the stable channel, suggesting a launch shortly (Chrome 105). Google Drive, Search, Fi, Chrome, and Authenticator (2FA codes) for iOS have the “Privacy Screen” Google Authenticator needs it.
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