Mumbai: In the wake of the Apple encryption fiasco earlier this year, numerous instant messaging platforms including Facebook-owned WhatsApp introduced end-to-end encryption feature to safeguard user privacy.
Now the social media giant has introduced end-to-end encryption feature and Snapchat-like vanishing chats for its messenger platform. The company’s Messenger chief David Marcus on Friday made an announcement regarding the development.
In his post, Marcus said that the company is constantly trying to provide more ways for people to safely share content on the messenger platform, as part of Facebook’s mission to make the world more connected. However, he feels that there are certain personal messages that are sensitive and require a certain layer of protection.
“That's why I'm glad to announce that Messenger is starting to test a feature called secret conversations that will both encrypt messages end-to-end, and enable you to set a timer to control how long each message you send stays visible in the conversation on both devices (yours and your recipient’s),” said Marcus.
While regular messages and calls on messenger are already protected by Messenger’s strong security systems, the roll-out of the additional security capability will ensure further protection for sensitive conversations which you don’t want anyone to trace.
“We’re rolling out this additional capability as an option for the most sensitive conversations you might need to have,” he added.
The main reason for introducing this optional feature, as cited by Marcus, is due a number of features on the messenger that currently do not work or support end-to-end encryption.
“We're making this an optional feature because a number of popular Messenger features don't currently work, or can’t work with end-to-end encrypted conversations, like using Messenger across multiple devices, archiving all your past conversations in case you lose your phone, and sending rich content like animated GIFs.”
As of now, the company is looking forward to getting feedback before introducing the feature to a wider audience later on. The bold move, as mentioned before, comes after the onslaught of the Apple-US encryption issue. Since then, numerous technology companies have supported the concept of end-to-end encryption.
Over the past few months, Facebook has burnt the candle at boths ends to make boost its messenger platform by adding support for AI bots, group calling feature and much more.
