Messengers encrypted chats get themes, emoji reactions, and more

Meta’s bringing Messenger’s core customization features to end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) chats on the platform. That means encrypted chats can now incorporate themes, custom emoji, reactions, group profile photos, and a whole lot more.

Messenger’s E2EE chats hide your online conversations from third parties, including Facebook itself. It also makes it more difficult for law enforcement and hackers to access the messages you’re sending and receiving. WhatsApp already has E2EE by default, and Instagram lets people switch on E2EE for individual conversations.

Previously, Meta didn’t offer any way to customize encrypted chats. As soon as you switched over to (or entered) a secret conversation, all customization...

Continue reading…