Secret Conversations allows two friends to communicate in an encrypted place that no one else can see, including Facebook. The function gives users device keys to guarantee no one may listen in on their conversations. The messages transmitted and received can only be viewed on the device used to initiate or begin the chat. So you can’t access a prior discussion on your laptop if you started it on your phone.
Secret Chats also makes your conversations ephemeral by enabling you to select how long the recipient may view your messages. If you make your message visible for 30 seconds, for example, a timer appears on the right and shows a countdown until the message vanishes. Your message may be shown for five seconds or up to 24 hours. This functionality may be disabled.
It’s worth mentioning that if you send someone a message using Secret Conversations, the message bubble will be black instead of blue. ‘Encrypted from one device to another’ will appear next to their photograph, indicating a private communication. You can have both a conventional and a secret Facebook Messenger discussion with the same person. If a discussion is ‘Secret’, a padlock symbol appears next to the person’s profile image. You may still ban and report people just like in a regular Facebook chat.
Your Facebook app may remove all Secret Conversations. No such chat or message is deleted from the other person’s device.
Although Secret Conversations is intended to be a private chat place, Facebook states that users may still capture conversations and share them.
It is presently available on iOS and Android.
Parent Zone’s perspective
Other applications, like Snapchat, have had similar capabilities for a long time, but there are safety concerns for parents if their kid has a Facebook account.
They may legally join up at the age of 13. This means kids can have private interactions with anybody they know on Facebook. Unlike the former ‘direct messaging’ function, these chats cannot be viewed on devices other than the one on which they were formed.
Some parents of young children only allow them to establish a Facebook account if they know their password. If this is you, be aware that your kids may be conducting secret phone calls that you will never see if you check onto their account on another device.
Only Messenger for Android and iOS allows covert conversations. So you won’t see them on your PC while connected into Facebook. Instantly communicate text, photos and stickers in covert chats. Voice calls and video calls are now unavailable in Secret Mode.
