Facebook Messenger Update Finally Makes Its Encryption Feature Worth Using
Meta (the band formerly known as Facebook) just announced a heap of new encryption features for its Messenger chatting service. While Facebook isn't a name that's often associated with privacy, that's something people expect of their messaging apps in 2022. Whether it's iMessage, WhatsApp, Signal, or anything else, all of these services are recognized for offering safe and secure messaging — primarily thanks to end-to-end encryption.
This is something that Facebook Messenger has had since 2016, but its implementation leaves a lot to be desired. Not only do users need to manually enable end-to-end encryption (it's not turned on by default), but doing so removes many of Messenger's most basic features. Now, in an attempt to retain expected functionality while still preserving top-end security, Messenger's getting a few big updates that have been a long time coming.
Related: How To Hide Your Facebook Friend List To Improve Privacy
On January 27, Meta announced some big changes for how encrypted conversations work on Messenger. Perhaps most important for some users, Messenger can now encrypt group chats and video/voice calls. This is something Meta's been testing since last year, but the functionality's now rolling out to everyone. These aren't groundbreaking features compared to what Messenger's competition offers, but it's a welcome update regardless.
But that's not all Meta has for Messenger. Also new is the ability for users to send GIFs, stickers, and message reactions in their encrypted chats. These are things 'normal' Messenger conversations have had for a while, but up until now, they've been missing from encrypted ones. They all work exactly as you'd expect. Tap the smiley face icon in the compose box to find a
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