Facebook Messenger tests end-to-end encryption by default

Although in the conversation about instant messaging services it does not usually appear among the first names, the truth is that Facebook Messenger is, today, the third most used IM service in the world, only behind WhatsApp, which has held the first position since the advent of this type of apps/services, and Weixin/WeChat, widely used in China. Thus, both the first and the third most used service in the world, according to Statista data, with an aggregate of nearly 3,000 million users in the world, belong to Meta (formerly Facebook).

This can be explained both by the long experience of the Facebook messaging service as for being integrated, from its early days, in the interface of the social network. However, and despite its large share of users, and encourage them to access the social network on a more recurring basis, for some time now it seems that Meta has focused on WhatsApp, leaving Facebook Messenger somewhat to the side. Although, sometimes, they remember the “poor brother” again.

And fortunately, for its users, this is one of those occasions since, as we can read in The Verge, Meta has finally started testing end-to-end encryption by default on Facebook Messenger. And it is that, today, this function is already available but it is optional, and experience has shown that many users, either due to ignorance or lack of interest, never use it.

With end-to-end encryption, and provided that the custody of the private keys rests exclusively with their owners (not third parties), the privacy of communications is guaranteed, since even if the network traffic is captured and analyzed, without these keys it will be impossible to find out the content of the conversation. There is no specific date yet, but Facebook says that the full deployment of encryption by default in Facebook Messenger will be completed over the next year.