Meta, the owner of the Messenger app, announced many new feature updates to the end-to-end encrypted calls and chats, to enable users to communicate securely with their friends and their families and protect them from hackers, criminals, and intruders.
Facebook Messenger does not yet provide end-to-end encryption by default but calls and chats can be protected with this encryption by swiping up on an existing conversation to enter vanish mode, which will make your messages delete when you close the chat window, or by using the Secret Conversations feature that can be used by toggling the lock icon when you start a new chat.
End-to-end encryption makes your conversations secure so that they are encrypted on transmission and re-decrypted only when they are received from the receiver, making it impossible to see their content even on Facebook itself. Only the sender and receiver know the content of messages that are protected by this encryption.
The first new thing about end-to-end encryption is that it is now also available for group chats (text messages, and video and voice calls) for all Messenger users. Last year, the company announced that it was testing this encryption for group chats with some users, and now it is available to everyone.
Messenger now also shows a new notification when someone takes a screenshot of a disappearing message in end-to-end encrypted conversations. These disappearing messages disappear 12 hours after seeing them, so one side of the conversation may take a screenshot of it to keep, and it's helpful to let the other party know about that.
End-to-end encrypted conversations also support the use of GIFs, stickers, and Reactions (❤️😆😮😢😠👍, by able tap and hold on to a message) to make these conversations more fun. You’ll now also be able to reply to specific messages in end-to-end encrypted chats, either by long pressing or swiping to reply.
Typing pointers are now also available in 1:1 encrypted chats and group chats, so you can see what others are typing, and long-pressing a message gives you the option to forward it to other users.
You can also edit photos and videos before sending them, and you can save the photos and videos received in these chats to your device by long-pressing as well,
Finally, the verified badge is now available for end-to-end encrypted conversations to help you the authentic accounts and protect you from scammers.
Users can already take advantage of all these features in their normal daily conversations, but they were not available to users who prefer to communicate with their friends and family via encrypted conversations for added security and privacy. These new features will enable them to make more use of Messenger, while waiting to make end-to-end encryption available to all users automatically, as is the case in WhatsApp, owned by the same parent company, Meta.
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