Meta has introduced a lot of new features to Facebook Messenger, including end-to-end encryption (E2EE) for extra security, chat customization, and much more. The E2EE chats were treated to a few other features available in regular conversations, including access to GIFs, stickers, and reactions. Meta said in a blog post; “We know people want a space to connect and they want to know that those conversations are private, safe and secure. That is why we’ve spent time building a team of talented engineers, cryptologists, designers and policy experts who are all committed to rolling out default end-to-end encryption on Messenger.”
New Features Added to Facebook Messenger
The new features announced for the end-to-end encrypted chats include:
- Chat themes: We’ve added chat themes to help personalize and enhance your conversations in end-to-end encrypted chats. Tired of a plain background? Can’t wait to show your Swiftie credentials with the Midnights theme? Now you can set themes, including static color and gradient themes, for end-to-end encrypted chats.
- Custom chat emojis and reactions: Want to personalize your response? You can see the full menu of emoji reactions and customize the quick reaction tray in end-to-end encrypted chats.
- Group profile photos: Choose group profile photos for different chats with friends or work colleagues.
- Link previews: We’ve rebuilt link previews for end-to-end encrypted chats so that you can see where a link is taking you, before clicking on it.
- Active Status: Let people see when you’re active, so they know when it’s a good time to call. You can also choose to turn this feature off, if you want to improve your privacy.
Bubbles on Android: Bubbles (a circle with your friend’s picture) let you read and reply to messages while you’re using other apps. Once enabled, a bubble will appear when you get a new message.
The Secret Conversations
The E2EE-enabled chats, called secret conversations, are strictly private and their content can only be viewed by the members participating in the conversation, which means that even Facebook won’t be able to see the contents of the conversation. However, these chats are device-limited, meaning they can appear only on the smartphone or computer that had set up the encrypted connection, but they are transferrable through unique keys.
Also read: Meta Rolls Out New ‘Calls Tab to the Facebook Messenger App
