After years of promises and limited testing, Meta has begun rolling out end-to-end default encryption protection for Messenger. In an ad, Mark Zuckerberg He said Personal chats and calls will have end-to-end encryption by default. However, encryption for group chats is still an optional feature.
End-to-end encryption is an important security layer because it does not allow Meta or other external entities to access the chat content.
“This has taken years to implement because we took our time to get this right. “Our engineers, coders, designers, policy experts, and product managers have worked tirelessly to rebuild Messenger features from the ground up,” said Loredana Crisan, head of Messenger at Meta. in Blog post.
Meta first introduced end-to-end encryption on Messenger in limited testing in 2016 via its “Secret Conversations” mode. In 2021, the company brought encryption feature for voice and video calls on the app. The social networking giant began offering an end-to-end encryption option for group chats and calls in January 2022. In August 2022, Meta began testing end-to-end encryption for one-on-one chats. In August 2023, the company said it plans to roll out end-to-end virtual encryption by the end of the year.
on him Engineering blogMeta said the rollout of end-to-end encryption — for which it uses the Signal protocol — took so long to roll out because the company had to rebuild certain features like the sticker library and chat storage from the ground up.
With this rollout, Messenger will be a step closer to achieving full, comprehensive protection like the other chat app owned by Meta WhatsApp. In August, the company also said that Instagram direct messages would get end-to-end encryption protection after the rollout of Messegner.
Aside from this security update, Meta is also launching new features for Messenger including the ability to edit a message up to 15 minutes after sending it; Control the speed of voice messages to play those audio clips at 1.5x or 2x speed; New photo and video layouts; And a new interface for disappearing messages. The company also said it is working on the ability to send high-resolution photos and videos on Messenger.
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