Facebook Messenger, which last week clawed its way up to the billion users club alongside its own WhatsApp and Google's YouTube apps, said it would soon begin testing end-to-end encryption capabilities in its messaging app. This would enable Messenger users to have conversations without fear of anyone digitally snooping on their online chats.
The new level of security means that a message will be visible only to the sender and the recipient; even Facebook will not be able to read it. Users can set a timer to limit the amount of time that a message remains visible during the conversation.
However, a major caveat to this encryption is that it can be viewed only on a single mobile device. In addition, sending rich content like GIFs or video and making payments will not be possible using the encryption. It is likely that an update in future might allow support form multi-device usage, which is how many Facebook Messenger users currently operate.