Accessibility of locked chats in the new WhatsApp app

[Ali Savas]

Hi everyone,

I am still using the last legacy UWP version of WhatsApp, which is
scheduled to stop working in about four days according to the in-app
warning. So far, I have managed to avoid switching to the new WhatsApp
app, but since there is no updated UWP version available anymore, this
seems unavoidable now. If the warning is accurate, the old app will be
unusable very soon.

This brings me to my question:

I make use of WhatsApp’s locked chats feature for very private
conversations. When I last checked the new WhatsApp app a few months
ago, these locked chats were not accessible with a screen reader and
could not be reached using NVDA or JAWS.

Is anyone here actively using the locked chats feature with the new
WhatsApp app and can confirm whether these chats are accessible now? Or
are they still inaccessible?

Thank you very much in advance for any insights or experiences you can
share.

Best regards
Ali