While it’s not the default settings for its Messenger app, Facebook offers end-to-end encryption for its one-on-one text chats. But now with the “surge” in audio and video calling on its platform, you’ll be able to encrypt them as well when you’re in that chat mode. They’re also updating the settings to its Disappearing Messages so you can have more options on how long (or short) they will disappear, from 5 seconds to 24 hours. Facebook will also start testing encryption for group chats and calls within the Messenger app.
End-to-end encryption has been a must-have for messaging apps and while Messenger isn’t like its sister app WhatsApp, there is the option to encrypt your one-on-one chats on the platform. And now, you’ll be able to do so on the voice and video calls as well. This will not be automatic of course for all of your chats as you will need to opt-in for end-to-end encryption per conversation. The person you’re chatting with also needs to turn on their encryption for this to work.
Meanwhile, they have also updated the controls on its Disappearing Messages feature. You now have more controls to choose from when choosing how short or how long before the messages expire in the chat. The shortest is 5 seconds while the longest is 24 hours. There are different reasons why people would want messages to disappear after sending them and it’s become a sought-after feature on messaging apps the past few years.
Facebook is also now testing out end-to-end encryption for group chats including voice and video calls. This will be applicable for those that are already in an existing chat thread or if they’re already connected on Messenger. Another thing they’re testing is delivery controls for encrypted chats so you can make sure to get rid of unwanted interactions from people you know. For Instagram, they’re doing a limited test for opting in to end-to-end encrypted messages.
Having things like encrypted messages, audio, and video calls, and disappearing messages are just some of the tools that you can use to protect your conversations on messaging platforms. Hopefully, we get more tools in the future since the online world can sometimes be a dangerous place.
