Just as we all are now familiar with Whatsapp end-to-end encryption, earlier this year, Facebook began experimenting end-to-end encryption in Messenger through a
new feature called secret conversations. The feature was accessible only to
some selected number of users first, but that has been changing over the past
weeks, with Facebook rolling Secret Conversations out to every Messenger user
online – about 900 million of them.
End-to-end encryption is a feature that’s been acquiring
more publicity as privacy concerns become more ubiquitous. With Secret
Conversations, just you and the person
you are chatting with can see the messages, meaning that not even Facebook can
see what you’re chatting about. You can
also set time limits on messages sent through Secret Conversations, forcing
them to cease and delete after a pre-destined amount of time.
While end-to-end encryption is absolutely a good thing, but there is one problem with Facebook’s implementation of
Secret Conversations in Messenger and which is the is opt-in feature, meaning
your conversations won’t be encrypted by default. You will have to switch on
end-to-end encryption for each conversation, which can be done by touching the
information icon in the upper-right corner of current or new conversations. Messenger’s
end-to-end encryption isn’t all surrounding, putting it in stark contradiction to WhatsApp,
a Facebook branch.
Secret Conversations
is available now in both the Android and iOS versions of Messenger, but if
you’re not getting it right away, check again to make sure Messenger has been
updated as Secret Conversations are only found in the app’s latest version.
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