Messenger will now support end-to-end encrypted chats, according to Mark Zuckerberg. Some of the updates the Meta CEO mentioned are link previews, custom emojis, and themes. “We’re ramping up testing default end-to-end encryption for more people in Messenger too,” he said in a Facebook Post.
Messenger’s end-to-end encryption (E2EE) ensures that no one, not even Facebook, can view your private chats. While End-to-End encryption is available on Messenger, users need to enable the feature on a per-chat basis (which shouldn’t be). Asides introducing more updates, Meta should also focus on making end-to-end encryption a default mode for all chats.
For a long time, Meta did not provide any options for customising encrypted or secured chats. Whenever you entered or switched to a private conversation, you lost the ability to alter the colour scheme of your conversation background, leaving you to converse against a blank white screen.
Now that Meta has extended its theme-setting options to its encrypted chats, you can make your private conversations more visually interesting by choosing from a wide variety of colour schemes, from solid colours to gradients.
In E2EE chats, not only can you personalise the quick reaction tray, but you also have access to the full complement of emoji reactions. Meta is expanding its features to allow users to add profile pictures to groups, view icons representing current activity, and see previews of links before clicking on them. The “bubbles” feature in Android’s Messenger allows you to stay in the loop with your ongoing E2EE chats even when you switch to a different app.
This comes at a time when Meta is planning to make E2EE default. We reported last year August the company was conducting tests on default E2EE, and that it plans to roll out these tests to a larger user base over the next “few months.”
However, the company claims it will inform users via “individual chat threads” when their chats have been upgraded, though it does not specify how many users will have access. Currently, the setting to enable E2EE on Messenger is hidden away in the chat’s settings, making it difficult to find if you aren’t looking for it.
Meta said last year that it was on track to make E2EE the default by 2023. It had said before that the process was taking so long because of security concerns. To compete with rapidly expanding services like Signal and Telegram, Meta may wish to improve Messenger’s appeal as more users seek out E2EE to secure their conversations.
