In a major move towards privacy and security, Meta, the parent company of popular social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, has announced a raft of new features for end-to-end encrypted conversations on its messaging platform, Messenger.
In a post on Facebook, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated that the company was “launching more features for end-to-end encrypted chats for Messenger today – link previews, custom emojis, themes, etc. We’re ramping up testing default end-to-end encryption for more people in Messenger too.”
The new features include chat themes, custom emojis and reactions, group profile pictures, link previews, Active Status, and Bubbles on Android. The chat themes allow users to personalize their conversations with static color and gradient options, while custom emojis and reactions give users more options to express themselves. Group profile pictures and link previews provide more context and information about the conversations, and Active Status and Bubbles on Android make it easier to stay connected with others.
In addition to these new features, Meta also announced plans to make end-to-end encryption the default chat experience on Messenger, catching up with rivals such as Apple’s iMessage. The company also revealed that it will be upgrading some existing conversations to being end-to-end encrypted, though it clarified that this will be a random process.
The announcement of these new features comes just days after Meta introduced Quiet Mode on Instagram and a few weeks after the company began to further restrict advertisers’ ability to target teenagers. These moves towards increased privacy and security on Meta’s platforms demonstrate the company’s commitment to protecting its users’ data and ensuring that their conversations remain private.
