Meta regularly launches redesigns of its Facebook Messenger application. And as for the changes made by the company at the beginning of 2023, they concern the encrypted version of the messaging system. Indeed, like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger offers an end-to-end encryption system, which makes communications unreadable when they pass through Facebook’s servers. However, on Messenger, this end-to-end encryption is not used by default and must be activated manually by the user.
Also, the encrypted version of Facebook’s messenger does not include all the features of the unencrypted version, which may discourage people from using it. But thanks to the redesign that Mark Zuckerberg’s company has just announced, the encrypted Messenger has more features, which should encourage more people to use it.
A more user-friendly encrypted version
For example, this update brings the messaging themes to Messenger’s encrypted chats. This means that you will no longer be required to have a default background on the app’s secure conversations. Additionally, Messenger now offers custom emojis on end-to-end encrypted chats. Also, on group chats, you will finally be able to set a profile picture for groups.
If you share a link in a secure chat on Messenger, the app finally displays thumbnails, giving a preview of that link. Active/inactive statuses also become visible on encrypted Messenger chats. And on the Android application, chat bubbles can finally be encrypted chats, which allows quick access to these chats. These are basic features of normal Messenger messaging, but weren’t available when chatting securely on the app.
© Messenger
Remember that in terms of security and encryption, Messenger must catch up with WhatsApp, which is already end-to-end encrypted by default. Meta Group’s goal is to make all of its messaging apps secure. Moreover, Messenger is already testing the use of this encryption system by default, on normal discussions (in other words, the user concerned by this test has nothing to activate to secure the discussions).
Messenger extends its encryption test
In its announcement, in addition to presenting these new features for the encrypted version of Messenger, Meta also indicates that it is extending the tests for end-to-end encryption by default. “Over the next few months, more and more people will continue to have some of their chats gradually upgraded with an additional layer of protection provided by end-to-end encryption,” explains Meta.
“We will notify users of these individual threads as they are updated. We know people will have questions about how we select and update individual threads, so we wanted to clarify that this is a random process,” also specifies the company. This random process allows this expansion of Messenger encryption to be tested, without causing any disruption to Meta’s infrastructure or the overall app experience. But the group recalls that its goal is still to bring end-to-end encryption “to the billions of messages” sent on the app every day.
However, Meta should be careful in deploying this feature. In addition, the group must face the skepticism of certain governments which oppose this project of total encryption of Messenger.
