Meta bring send-to-end encryption to all Messenger users, but not all at once

Over the next few months, Meta will gradually expand end-to-end encryption (E2EE) to all Messenger users to ensure a high level of security across the board.

“We will notify people in individual chat threads as they are upgraded. We know people will have questions about how we select and upgrade individual threads, so we wanted to make clear that this is a random process. It’s designed to be random so that there isn’t a negative impact on our infrastructure and people’s chat experience. This also ensures our new end-to-end encrypted threads continue to give people the fast, reliable and rich experience on Messenger.”

“Gradually” is the keyword here as Meta states it will randomly choose (opens in new tab) which chats get E2EE and which ones don’t. When chosen, everyone in a selected chat will be notified if their app now has that extra layer of protection. The reasoning behind the random selection process is to ease both users and the company’s own infrastructure so as to not overwhelm either of them. Ideally, the rollout will go more smoothly when done little by little instead of all at once. Plus, Meta will be testing whether or not E2EE will be a default setting for Messenger during this period. So if you are one of the lucky few who gets picked first, be sure to install the update as soon as you can to have optimal security.