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How to enable and use Secret Conversations in Facebook Messenger

iPhone screen showing Facebook Messenger app with an encrypted secret conversation

With secret conversations in Messenger, Facebook offers support for end-to-end encryption, giving you peace of mind knowing that a third party cannot decipher any sensitive messages with friends and family. These encrypted chats rely on a device key that ensures only you and the recipient can see the message.

You can verify the device key to confirm that the messages are end-to-end encrypted, set a timer to have secret messages disappear from the conversation, and so forth.

In this article, we show you how to set up and use end-to-end encrypted secret conversations in Facebook Messenger.

Facebook Messenger gains iOS 10 integration on the Lock screen and in Phone app

Facebook just pushed a major update to its Messenger software in the App Store. On iPhones with iOS 10, the app now takes advantage of Apple's new CallKit framework to make audio (VoIP) calls from Messenger look and behave like normal cellular calls with full support for Lock screen and Phone integration.

Bumped to version 89.0, the app now shows incoming VoIP calls from Messenger contacts right on your Lock screen complete with fullscreen contact images, standard controls like the Mute, Keypad, Speaker, Add Call and Video buttons and more.

Facebook Messenger picks up live-streaming feature, called Instant Video

Facebook today announced a new live-streaming feature on the mobile Messenger app, dubbed “Instant Video”. Similar to the live-streaming feature built into the mobile Facebook app, Instant Video allows you to start streaming live video with a friend on Messenger by tapping a new button found in chat windows. The video streams in a small window so that you can continue chatting while streaming.

Instagram’s popular Explore tab now recommends Stories from people you could follow

Today, Instagram's Explore tab will start showing some users a bar of Stories from accounts they could follow, TechCrunch reported yesterday, saying these algorithmically personalized suggestions will roll out to everyone soon. Stories recommendations are based on who you follow and the topics you care about, making it easy to add someone new to your Home feed’s Stories section.

How to opt out of WhatsApp-Facebook account data sharing

As you may have heard, WhatsApp is starting to share some of users' account data with Facebook (things like your registered phone number and the last time you used the service) to improve targeted advertising and friend suggestions on Facebook and better fight spam on WhatsApp. Thankfully, you can easily opt out, right when the prompt goes up, or within 30 days of accepting the new terms, here's how.

WhatsApp begins sharing account data with Facebook to boost targeted advertising

Facebook-owned WhatsApp today updated its Terms and Privacy Policy for the first time in four years to reflect that the messaging service will start sharing select account data with Facebook in order to improve targeted advertising. Wait, does that mean that you're going to be inundated with ads on WhatsApp? In a word, no—at least for the time being. As per the amended terms of service, “We still do not allow third-party banner ads on WhatsApp.”

Facebook testing autoplaying videos with sound

What could be worse than those pesky autoplaying videos on Facebook? Autoplaying videos that begin playing audio automatically as you scroll past them in your News Feed, but of course! And that's precisely what Facebook is currently experimenting with, according to Mashable.

At the moment, the company is currently testing two methods of getting users to watch video with sound: one involving autoplaying videos with sound and the other with an Unmute button on the lower right corner of such videos.

Facebook launches Lifestage, a teens-only social app built around video profiles

If you're a high-schooler aged under 22 and eager to connect with your classmates within an environment that harkens back to the Facebook from 2004, when it was exclusively a college student network, then today's Facebook where everyone creeps on others may not be the safest place to engage in such interactions.

That's why Michael Sayman, Facebook’s 19-year-old product manager, created Lifestage, a teens-only iPhone app that encourages high-schoolers to create video profiles and share them with their school network.

Envoy lets you remove the unwanted sections from Facebook Messenger

It seems to be a mutual interest of a great number of Facebook Messenger users to remove those unwanted "Favorites" and "Active Now" sections from the Facebook Messenger app.

Although we covered a tutorial in the past on how to remove these features manually for a temporary period of time, they would always come back after a few days or weeks. A new free jailbreak tweak dubbed Envoy aims to change that.

Facebook tweaks its algorithm to further reduce clickbait in your News Feed

Facebook began removing deliberate hoaxes from users' News Feeds in April 2014. The following year, the company stepped up fight against spammers with more changes aimed at helping reduce the number of misleading posts, also known as clickbait. Today, the social networking firm announced a set of new measures to further reduce clickbait in your News Feed by using a brand new system which can automatically spot phrases commonly used in misleading headlines.

You’ll soon be able to filter individual comments on Instagram, even disable commenting

Instagram is working on some significant enhancements for the commenting feature found its mobile app, potentially giving users the ability to filter their own comment streams on the service or even disable commenting on all posts, according to The Washington Post. Instagram has been testing these features with some businesses, but soon everyone will be able to screen individual comments in their feed and decide for themselves if they might be better served by disabling commenting on their account altogether.