Even though you expect a certain amount of security when using your Facebook Messenger to communicate with your friends, it may still be not enough at times. With the recent issues on privacy and encryption, a lot of messenger services are going into end-to-end encryption as a selling point for their services. Messenger is now testing out their own Secret Conversations to appeal to a market that values this level of security in their digital interaction.
This optional secret conversations will bring end-to-end encryption to all aspects of your message. In fact, you will only be able to access the messages in just one device, unlike your existing one now that has cross-platform and cross-device syncing. Not even Facebook will be able to see the sensitive messages that you exchange with your friends and loved ones. The technology they’re using is the Signal Protocol that was developed by Open Whisper Systems.
You can also set a timer so that you will be able to control how long specific messages will be visible in your conversation. This is useful for when you’re exchanging banking or financial details with family members as it adds more layers of security for information that should be for your eyes only. But you can only exchange text-based messages for now and not rich content like GIFs, videos, payments, etc.
This is of course optional only as some prefer the flexibility they have from the current Messenger set-up. They’re still in the testing phase now and it’s available to limited and selected users only. No timetable yet on when this will be available to everyone else.
SOURCE: Facebook
