Facebook Messenger: Facebook Messenger is now getting a feature that would allow end-to-end encryption of voice and video calls made via the platform. The announcement was made by the social media giant in a blog post last week, and the feature has started rolling out starting Friday. With this, the video and voice calls made using Facebook Messenger would remain encrypted and no third party, including Facebook, would know the contents of the conversation. Not only that, but Messenger is also rolling out new controls for the disappearing messages.
In its blog, Facebook said that its end-to-end encryption feature is being extended to calls now as it witnesses over 150 million video calls being made on the platform every day. The feature is already present on Facebook-owned instant messaging platform WhatsApp.
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Meanwhile, the text conversations are also getting a minor update. Messenger has a disappearing message feature that lets the sender send a message for a limited time – and let users choose the duration for which it would be available – one minute, 15 minutes, one hour, four hours and 24 hours. Now, Facebook would be allowing users to decide the duration of the availability of the disappearing message between 5 seconds and 24 hours, giving them more options.
At the same time, the platform would also be beta testing some other features. For example, the platform would now soon be testing the end-to-end encryption feature for group video and voice chats, with some users getting the option to have encrypted group voice and video calls with friends and family that have an existing chat thread with the user or with whom the user is already connected. Moreover, a limited test would also be running for testing the encryption of direct messages on Instagram. In this, adults in some countries would be able to opt-in for end-to-end encrypted messages and calls for one-on-one conversations on Instagram.
