The truth is that regular chats held through the program are not end-to-end encrypted, despite Facebook Messenger’s assertions to the contrary. This puts your sensitive information at great danger.
End-to-end encryption makes sure that no one in the middle, not even Meta/Facebook, can access the content you send and that only you and the recipient can read or listen to it.
Unfortunately, unlike WhatsApp, end-to-end encryption is not turned on by default, thus it is your responsibility to do so in order to prevent eavesdropping by outside parties.
On the bright side, turning it on is simple once you know how; however, it can only be done for specific contacts; it cannot be changed globally. It takes engaging in a “Secret conversation” before beginning an encrypted communication with someone. The procedures are demonstrated in the steps below.
- Open the Messenger app, and tap the profile icon of the contact that you want to chat with using end-to-end encryption.
- At the top of the conversation window, tap their profile icon again.
- Under “More Actions,” tap Go to secret conversation.
You will now be in a conversation window that implements end-to-end encryption. From here, you can also set your messages to disappear from the conversation thread completely (on both your device and the device of the person you’re chatting with).
To do so, tap the clock banner at the top of the conversation window. Alternatively, tap the top-left profile of the person you’ll be chatting with, then select Disappearing messages and choose an expiration time.