Facebook Messenger just got a big security and privacy upgrade, default end-to-end encryption for personal chats. Just like WhatsApp.
Meta added end-to-end encryption for one-on-one chats in 2016. End-to-end encryption wasn’t enabled by default, like in iMessage, WhatsApp, and Signal, but now, Meta is finally ready to deliver on its promise of default end-to-end encryption for Facebook Messenger.
It’s not all good news, as the feature might take months to roll out to everyone. But you’ll know when it happens, as Meta will prompt you to set a recovery mode for the encrypted chats. Also, the feature only works for personal messages. Group chats don’t have the same protections just yet.
How to tell whether chats are encrypted
Meta announced the development in a blog post that also details several other notable upgrades that Facebook Messenger is about to get.
The company says that Facebook Messenger has strong end-to-end encryption built on the Signal Protocol and Meta’s Labyrinth Protocol. Why did it take so long to arrive? Well, Meta apparently wanted to get it right:
Since 2016, Messenger has had the option for people to turn on end-to-end encryption, but we’re now changing private chats and calls across Messenger to be end-to-end encrypted by default.
