Starting today, the National Security Agency (NSA) can no longer decrypt your calls and chats end-to-end. This is a major change for the privacy of users, as it means that the NSA can’t access your conversations or read your emails without a warrant. The decision to make this change was made in response to concerns about the potential for abuse by the NSA and other government agencies. The NSA has been known to use its powers to collect data on millions of Americans without their knowledge or consent, so this change is important in order to protect our privacy and safety. If you’re using a phone that supports encryption, you should continue to do so. encrypting your conversations will help protect them from being accessed by anyone other than you and the person you’re talking to.
The feature actually launched a few years ago to some users, but now all users can encrypt their conversations when using Meta’s chat application.
There are two ways to use Messenger’s end-to-end encryption. You can swipe up on an existing chat to enter vanish mode, which will make it, so all of your messages are deleted when the chat window is closed. There’s also Secret Conversations, which is used by clicking the lock when you create a new chat.
As far as what encryption actually does, it makes it so only you and the person you’re chatting with will be able to read the contents of your messages. It’s a nice little layer of security.
In addition, Meta announced some new features for encrypted chats. Now, if someone takes a screenshot of an encrypted conversation, you’ll receive a notification. Of course, you won’t be able to stop them, but at least you’ll know it’s happening. You can also send GIFs, stickers, and reactions. Finally, you can long-press to reply or forward messages in encrypted chats.
If Messenger is your primary chat app, this is an excellent update for you. Sure, the feature has been available for some time for voice and video chats, but now the company is bringing it to all other aspects of its chat app. If you’re not a Messenger user, this might be an update that makes you want to switch.
