WhatsApp is currently the only Facebook-owned messaging app to offer end-to-end encryption for audio and video calls.
What you need to know
- Facebook is testing encrypted audio and video calls over Secret Conversations in the Messenger app.
- Audio and video calls made over Secret Conversations will be “encrypted end-to-end across all your active mobile devices.”
- Facebook is also said to working on bringing its in-house voice assistant to the main app.
Facebook introduced Secret Conversations as an experimental feature for Messenger in 2016, allowing users to send end-to-end encrypted messages. Very soon, however, you may even be able to make encrypted audio and video calls using the feature.
App sleuth Jane Manchun Wong, who discovered the unreleased feature, has also shared a screenshot that says audio and video calls made over Secret Conversation will be “end-to-end encrypted across all your active mobile devices.” However, since the feature is currently in testing and Facebook is yet to confirm that such a feature is planned to be released, it may take a while before you can start making audio or video calls using the secret conversations function.
Facebook Messenger is testing Video/Audio calls over Secret Conversation pic.twitter.com/aNgnvtzsBf
— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) October 31, 2019
Facebook announced earlier this year that it plans to introduce end-to-end encryption across all its popular messaging apps as part of a more “privacy-focused” approach. The UK, US and Australian governments, however, recently wrote to Facebook and asked it to ensure that the safety of its users is not compromised and provide court-authorized access to communications on its messaging services to law enforcement agencies to protect the public before going ahead with its end-to-end encryption plan.
In addition to encrypted audio and video calls over Secret Conversations, Wong says Facebook is also working on bringing its own virtual assistant to the main app.
How to make Facebook Messenger as secure as possible
