After WhatsApp, End-To-End Encryption Is Coming To Facebook Messenger

After WhatsApp, End-To-End Encryption Is Coming To Facebook Messenger

After announcing end-to-end encryption to WhatsApp, now Facebook is planning to bring it to Messenger soon. The social media giant declared today that it is trying a new feature Secret Conversations to support end-to-end encryption on demand. 

The US technology giant believed this feature would be known as secret conversations which can be read only by the sender and receiver.

"Providing more ways for people to safely share is an important part of making the world more open and connected," the social network's vice president David Marcus said on his Facebook page.

"Whether you're asking a doctor for medical advice, sending sensitive account information to your spouse, or even your Social Security number, it's important to have options available for sharing these kinds of very sensitive messages."

The "secret conversations," feature, which is optional, does not work on different devices. So even if a person has Messenger on a computer and on a phone, the discussion will be visible on only one device. The encrypted chats are now being established with a limited number of people, Facebook said, but the option will be more widely offered later this summer.

Messaging service WhatsApp, which is essentially owned by Facebook, started using end-to-end encryption in April. Apple also uses the software in its iMessages and even Google declared that its new messaging app Allow would have an end-to-end encryption selection available. 

"Our technology uses the Signal Protocol developed by Open Whisper Systems," said Facebook in an official post.

End-to-end encryption is primarily meant for texts. Currently, Facebook is not supporting multimedia content like videos or GIFs or other features.

Explaining the reason for making Secret Conversations as an optional feature, Facebook said, "That's because many people want Messenger to work when you switch between devices, such as a tablet, desktop computer or phone. Secret conversations can only be read on one device and we recognize that experience may not be right for everyone."

Facebook Messenger has over 900 million active monthly users making this an enormous step for global user confidentiality. It’s particularly timely in terms of user observation that Facebook is rolling out the feature now, too, since it has just faced criticism from privacy watchdogs over user tracking.