End-to-end encrypted chats isn’t a new feature for Messenger. Six years ago, the feature was introduced via Secret Conversations, but default end-to-end encrypted chats has been a beta feature for very long time (and it still is). However, Meta has decided that now would be a good time to enroll more Messenger users into the beta program.
In a new announcement released this week, Meta revealed that it has started to expand testing default end-to-end encryption for Messenger gradually. The feature should become available for more people over the next few months. According to Meta, people who will receive the beta feature will be notified in individual chat threads.
As far as the method of choosing who’s going to get their chats upgraded with an extra layer of protection, Meta says that it’s been designed to be random “so that there isn’t a negative impact on our infrastructure and people’s chat experience.”
But that’s not the only thing messenger users will get in the coming months. Along with default end-to-end encrypted chats, Meta announced the introduction of some new features, like chat themes, custom emojis and reactions and a few more, which will be available into Meta’s end-to-end encrypted experience.
The new Active Status feature lets Messenger users see when you’re active. Thankfully, the feature can be turned off, which comes in handy if you don’t want to be disturbed. Finally, Bubbles (a circle with a friend’s picture) allows Messenger users to read and reply to messages while Messenger users to read and reply to messages while they’re using other apps. It needs to be enabled to make the bubble appear whenever you receive new messages. Sadly, Bubbles is only available on Android for the time being.