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Your Facebook chats are about to get a lot more secretive – if that’s the kind of thing you are looking for.
The social media giant is taking a big leap towards keeping Messenger conversations safe from prying eyes with its new “secret conversations” feature.
It is also adding a self-destruct option as well, where you will be able to add expiration dates to your messages.
The feature will use end-to-end encryption to lock your messages so no one but the sender and recipient will be able to read them – similar to what WhatsApp has done with its messaging platform.
“We’ve heard from you that there are times when you want additional safeguards – perhaps when discussing private information like an illness or a health issue with trusted friends and family, or sending financial information to an accountant,” Facebook wrote in its blog post.
“To enable you to do this we are starting to test the ability to create one-to-one secret conversations in Messenger that will be end-to-end encrypted and which can only be read on one device of the person you’re communicating with.”
The end-to-end encryption means even Facebook employees and law enforcement officials won’t be able to look at your Messenger conversations – making them virtually unhackable.
It also means officials investigating cyber crimes won’t be able to access the communications of criminals and terrorists – even when they obtain a warrant.
The Messenger feature will not be turned on by default – users will have to choose to start a secret conversation. Facebook said the feature is being rolling out on a “limited test basis” and will be “more widely available this summer”.
The company also revealed it is using the Signal Protocol developed by Open Whisper Systems (technical details here) for the service – the same firm that provided end-to-end encryption for WhatsApp.
However, secret conversations can only be read on one device and won’t support GIFs or videos.
“Secret conversations can only be read on one device and we recognise that experience may not be right for everyone,” the blog post adds.
“It’s also important to note that in secret conversations we don’t currently support rich content like GIFs and videos, making payments, or other popular Messenger features.”
