Facebook Finally Gets Behind End-To-End Encryption For Messenger Chats

It has been a long time coming, but the tech giant Meta has finally realized that its users might just want a little bit of privacy. As of August 11th, it has started testing end-to-end encryption for the Messenger portion of its popular social media platform, Facebook.

In a Messenger News blog post, Facebook has stated that it is currently testing secure storage on Messenger, which means that backups for the messages will also be encrypted. In addition to this, they are testing end-to-end encryption in its chat in general.

The secure storage enforces that you have the ability to back up your Facebook Messenger messages and content to an encrypted backup. This also makes them recoverable on supported devices. Facebook goes on to point out that the encryption will prevent Facebook themselves from seeing the messages that you may have stored unless, of course, you report messages to Facebook. Reports will be unencrypted to allow for Facebook to take appropriate administrative action. In most cases you will need to unlock your stored item using a secure pin that only you should know.


Not only are texts and storage going to be end-to-end encrypted according to the post, but so will audio and video calls. Facebook is removing one feature from Messenger, known as Vanish Mode. It served as a sort of security mode allowing messages to "vanish" but was not encrypted. This feature was limited to just a few devices, primarily iPhones, but ultimately it will no longer be supported, in favor of keeping the "disappearing messages" option available.

Lastly, Facebook has been improving its chat offerings in the mobile photo space, Instagram. It has also added and improved end-to-end encrypted messages and calls there. That includes enabling this option for adults in Ukraine and Russia, where it wasn't available before. These expanded features of Instagram messages are expected to come in the next few months.