Facebook has rolled out end-to-end encryption to all of its 900 million Facebook Messenger users. An opt-in feature, you can now encrypt Facebook Messages if you don't want hackers, intrusive governments, or even Facebook itself to see your personal conversations. Known as Secret Conversations, the feature started rolling out back in July. However, since the feature isn't enabled by default, many users aren't sure how to enable end-to-end encryption to encrypt Facebook messages. Here are the steps that will help you keep your conversations secret.
Want to remove all of your encrypted conversations from your device? At the end of this post, you will also find tips to delete your Secret Conversations.
How to encrypt Facebook messages
Unlike WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger doesn't encrypt all of your messages. If you want to keep your conversations secret, you will have to manually enable the feature. Facebook also allows you to have your Secret Conversations self-destruct after a set time limit. Want to keep your conversations private? Here is how:
- Open Facebook Messenger and tap on the Home tab.
- Tap on the Compose New Message button in the top right corner, which will take you to a new message thread.
- Now, you will notice a new Secret button in the top right. Different from regular, un-encrypted messages, Secret messages cannot use some of the services like location and payments. If you want to send a secret message, click on Secret.
- Similar to when you create a new message thread, new Secret message will also ask you to select your recipient. With encryption now enabled, you can share sensitive information like payment details without having to worry about someone having access to it.
- There's also a nifty little timer in the lower right corner. Click on it to set a time anywhere from 5 second to 24 hours for the Secret message to self-destruct itself after the recipient has read it.
- Send your new Secret Message.
How to delete Facebook's secret conversations
Secret conversations won't show up on all of your devices. You can choose to make your phone as the default device to receive Secret Conversations. Facebook says that only one device will be able to send and receive Secret Messages at a time. You can also choose to delete all of your Secret Conversations from your device. To do so, click on Me tab > Secret Conversations > and tap on Delete Secret Conversations.
If you don't want a particular device to receive your Secret Conversations, you can toggle it off in the same settings menu as well.
About the author: Rafia joined Wccftech in 2012 as a tech reporter. She is currently working on stories focusing on people and technologies that are turning Microsoft into a “company to watch” again. She is also responsible for collaborating with tech makers and e-commerce platforms to bring annoying but tempting deals to our readers.
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