Facebook Messenger is getting optional end-to-end encryption soon, rumor says

One of the Facebook-owned messaging apps already offers end-to-end encryption to all of its users - we're talking about WhatsApp. However, the social network's other such service, namely Facebook Messenger, has yet to make that step.

But according to a new rumor, it's only a matter of time. Facebook apparently plans on adding an opt-in end-to-end encryption feature to Messenger at some point "in the coming months", three people close to the project have said.

Facebook Messenger may not have the reach of WhatsApp, but it's still used by more than 900 million people, so this move will be big. End-to-end encryption won't be turned on by default (like in WhatsApp) because of all the smarts that Facebook wants to build into Messenger.

The company reportedly plans on adding a lot of AI-driven features to Messenger, and for those to work to the fullest extent Facebook needs to be able to read your messages - something impossible if you have end-to-end encryption turned on (in which case only you and the person or persons you're communicating with see what you're saying).

Facebook may face some backlash about this decision, in the same way Google did after it announced the new Allo messaging app at the I/O conference this year, as end-to-end encryption is opt-in there too.

Source | Via