Facebook has always been a go-to social media platform for millions of users. To elevate the reliability of a huge user base, Facebook has introduced several features to engage the audience. In fact, most of the users are aware of this private chatting feature.
This feature is widely utilized by people to discuss confidential things that do not require anyone’s attention. This feature ensures confidentiality as the chats are end-to-end encrypted. This demonstrates that only the sender and receiver can view the chats. Let’s explore this feature in more depth.
How to Use the Secret Conversation on Messenger?
Before starting with the process, it’s important to address the fact that this feature only works on mobile devices instead of web browsers. Long story short, it only supports the mobile version, not the web version.
Other than that, it’s equally important that both parties involved in secret conversations must be running the latest version of the app. So, make sure to update the app before heading into the conversation.
Follow these steps to start your secret conversation on Facebook Messenger with your friends:
- Step 1: “Sign in” to your Facebook account.
- Step 2: Tap on the “Pencil” icon to start a new conversation.
- Step 3: Enable the “Secret Conversation” feature by tapping on the “Switch Icon”.
- Step 4: Now, select the individual with whom you want to start a secret conversation.
- Step 5: From the “new chat” window, start your conversation.
You can send text messages, or make a video call as you normally do. You are no longer required to worry about your privacy as the conversation will be end-to-end encrypted.
How to View Secret Conversations on Facebook
Most people believe, locating the secret conversations section within the Meta’s messenger application is a bit tricky. But in reality, it’s quite easy and straightforward. Here is how you can locate them:
- Step 1: Launch the Facebook Messenger app and head toward the chat section.
- Step 2: There, if you saw chats with the “lock” icon. These locked chats are secret conversations.
Despite, if you remember the name of the individual with whom you have secret conversations, we recommend, directly searching for his/her name instead of scrolling through the chats. But it is important to consider that the sender hasn’t set a timer for the chat. Because if that’s the case, then the chats will disappear automatically after a set period of time.
How to Restore Deleted Secret Conversations?
While talking about deleted chats, it is possible to restore them. Yes, you heard it right. See below to know how to achieve this:
- Step 1: Open Messenger and click on the “gear icon”.
- Step 2: From the appeared drop-down list, select “Achieved Threads”.
- Step 3: Now, click on the chat you wish to “unarchive”. the moment you click on the chat it will go back to the main chat box.
Benefits of Secret Conversation Feature
Along with many benefits, a few of the major ones are as follows:
- End-to-end Encryption: The most important benefit. As we have already mentioned end-to-end encryption assures that the conversation remains confidential between the sender and a receiver. Also, the recipients got encryption keys to decrypt the chat. There is no involvement of third parties, including Facebook itself.
- Prevent Hacking: Hacking is considered the major concern while accessing any of the social media platforms. Note this fact, regular conversations are subject to potential hacking if the account is compromised. Secret conversation shields users and makes it difficult for hackers to intercept.
- Temporary Messaging: By temporary messaging, you can set a timer for a message to self-destruct automatically after a certain period of time. This is usually used to share information that you don’t want to be permanently stored or accessible for a haul by anyone.
- Reduces Data Collection: First remember, Facebook collects a significant amount of data. This data is derived for various purposes. However secret conversation acts as a barrier and limits the data that Facebook can collect.
- Enrich Privacy: As the name suggests, secret conversation can be particularly useful for the discussion of confidential, sensitive, or private matters. However, since the encryption is there, you need not worry about your privacy anymore.
Final Words
Facebook Messenger is a well-known most highly grossing messaging application that is used by users worldwide. Over time, with the increase in hacking cases, privacy concerns are becoming paramount. But, messenger worked on it and launched the secret conversation feature a few years ago.
This feature is a hit that encourages users to trust the platform more. Along with numerous benefits, still, there are still concerns from parents. Parents believe their kids might use it for malicious content. Their concerns are acceptable. We recommend, accessing this feature with responsibility or in a way that doesn’t breach anyone’s privacy.