You’ve misused your Facebook messages – “secret conversations” lurk behind hidden buttons

HIDDEN in billions of Facebook Messenger apps is a secret mode you’ve probably overlooked.

It’s essential for keeping your conversations truly private — but millions have never used it.

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Check your phone for a feature called Secret Conversations.

It is part of the Messenger app for iPhone on iOS and Android.

So you will not see them in Facebook chat or Messenger website.

But they have a huge benefit that can help you stay safe online.

That’s because Facebook Secret Conversations are end-to-end encrypted.

This means that the texts you send are garbled in transit – and can only be read by you and the recipient.

If someone tried to sniff the message during transmission, they just saw a mess.

This prevents Facebook from reading anything you’ve sent.

And it also means Facebook can’t be forced to hand over your secret conversation — because they physically can’t.

Be warned, though: the person you’re texting could share your conversation in the form of a screenshot.

Secret conversations also have an added benefit: messages disappear.

You can set a timer for when texts should delete themselves from your conversation.

That means there isn’t a long trail of messages coming back to haunt you.

To start a secret conversation on iPhone, tap the chat icon and then tap “Secret” in the top right corner.

You can also go into an existing chat, go to the settings menu, and then choose Secret Conversation.

It’s a similar process on Android phones, but instead of tapping Secret in a new chat, tap the Lock button.

Again, Android users can enter an existing conversation and go to the menu to open a secret conversation.

Remember that you can only see a secret conversation on the device you created it on.

If you try to check it from another phone, it just doesn’t show up.