If something has been reproached against social networks, and especially Facebook, in recent years it is the security of its users' data. Constant failures in the privacy of these services have caused certain aspects of which we have accounts here to be filtered and exposed to the highest bidder. While we can do little ourselves, there are some features that Facebook puts into our services for those of us who are concerned about our privacy.
How does the secret conversation on Facebook work?
Today we want to talk to you about one of those characteristics. Specifically, a functionality that will add another degree of protection to our messages, so we explain everything you need to know about how to use secret conversations on facebook. And no, don't think badly...
This may be the first question that comes to mind when you have read the name of "secret conversations". The technical explanation for this is that this type of chat has the well-known end-to-end encryption as a superior security system. But what does this mean? Let's say that it is a method that improves your privacy and that of the person with whom you are having a conversation, making it so that only you and they can see the messages sent through said conversation. That is to say, that this chat will be completely shielded in the eyes of Facebook or any other user who wants to know what we are talking about.
First things first, end-to-end encryption
End-to-end encryption is a feature that is often boasted about by all Internet services that want to show us that they have a secure system. Until not long ago, many messaging applications sent messages from the sender to the receiver as plain text. This means that the message can be read while it is traveling over the network. Anyone who has a computer with listening software on the same network as you - a cafeteria, a hotel or a university, for example - can read the communication of both interlocutors. In the same way, the server that is acting as an intermediary in the communication cannot guarantee that this information is not being classified to sell it to third parties.
That problem is solved with encryption. Basically, it consists of encoding messages with a common key that only the sender and receiver of the communication know. Before sending the message, all the text is encrypted. Upon reaching the receiver, your phone or device knows the private key, so you can retrieve the original information. To put a simile, it's like when you passed notes at school and used code names in case the teacher ended up intercepting the paper and reading it aloud.
Now anyone looking at the network will see a completely unreadable set of letters and numbers. The Facebook servers will also be unable to know what we are communicating, thus guaranteeing our privacy. This is how end-to-end encryption works.
Secret conversations, one more step to encryption
No matter how much you encrypt a conversation, it will be fully decrypted if someone manages to get hold of your mobile phone or log into your Facebook account. For that same reason, secret conversations add an extra step of security to your conversations. While end-to-end encryption protects us from hackers—and from Facebook advertisers—secret conversations protect us from others who could read our private information if they had access to our accounts or devices. To do this, Messenger equips a conversation timer that deletes messages from both interlocutors at a certain time.
Another key aspect of secret Facebook conversations is the place where we can use them. This service will only be available when using Facebook Messenger, but not on any computer. And it is that, despite the fact that this was originally available in the web version, currently we can only use the secret conversations in the messenger app from our smartphone.
Another extra benefit that secret conversations can offer us on this social network is the programming to delete messages automatically. If even with end-to-end encryption we do not feel comfortable with our privacy, we can add another layer by programming the automatic deletion of these after a certain time that we will establish ourselves.
How to activate secret conversations on Facebook?
At this point, and now that you know in depth all the possibilities that this function will bring us in terms of privacy, we will explain how you can activate them from your mobile phone. You just have to follow the following steps:
- Access the app of Facebook Messenger on the smartphone.
- Click on the top icon as if you were to start a new conversation.
- Once inside the list of contacts, in the upper right corner you will see an option called "secret". Press it.
- Now you are in the same list of contacts but, this time, the chat that will start will be a secret conversation. Find the contact you want and start a chat with them as you normally would.
If you pay attention, the interface itself already tells us that it is a secret conversation and that it has end-to-end encryption. Now you can speak normally with that person with the extra security that this function provides us. Within this more secure interface you can of course find all the possibilities that we have in “normal chats” such as:
- Send photos and videos.
- Send voice notes.
- Use the "like" quick response.
- Make use of emoticons, stickers and avatars.
And best of all, as we mentioned before, both with the text and with any of these elements you can use the with a timer of messages so that they are automatically deleted after a certain period of time. To do this it is as simple as:
- Next to the bar to write a new message you will see an icon of a small stopwatch. press it.
- This will activate a menu in which we can establish the time that we want this message to be active both for us and for our interlocutor. Set the timer you want and click on "Set timer".
Now write a message as normal and send it. After this, in the history itself, you will see a countdown that shows the time remaining until said message is permanently deleted. In this way you will have the certainty that there is no trace of what we have said to anyone, at least once the period of time that we have configured by default has passed. Calmer?
How to know if you have been invited to a secret chat
Until now we have told you how to access this function, activate it and use it, but how can you know if they have entered you and you are in a chat with these characteristics? Well, you will receive the first signal in the same Messenger notification when it alerts you through its icon. The balloon that you will see will not be a normal red one, but black, which surely already alerts you that you are facing something unusual.
If you decide to enter the application at that moment, you will see that you are inside a secret conversation because the interface style changes completely compared to the other chats that we have active. In addition, you will see that the screen is stained with only two colors: black and white. Of course, you will be able to write without problems from that moment on, say whatever you want but taking into account that you must previously define a timer (a few seconds or a few minutes) around which everything we send will be visible, since past that limit it will be automatically removed.