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How To Get Facebook Messenger Secret Conversations

by Lara Rutherford-Morrison
texting, phone
Brothers91/E+/Getty Images

Facebook Messenger has just gotten a lot sneakier with a new feature, called “Secret Conversations,” that lets you have private, encrypted conversations on the chat platform. If you super spies out there are wondering how to get Facebook Messenger Secret Conversations, look no further. Accessing this confidential messaging option is a simple as asking, “Hey, can you keep a secret?”

Secret Conversations lets you host chats that only you and your partner can see. As with Snapchat, you can arrange for conversations to disappear after a set time period, à la the mission briefs in the Mission Impossible movies (only without the explosions). Secret Conversations have a few limitations: You can’t move the conversation from device to device (so if you start your convo on your phone, it’s only accessible through your phone); there are no group chats; and while you can send messages, photos, and stickers, you can’t send videos or gifs. But those boundaries are a small price to pay for conversations that are well and truly private. According to CNN Money, chats via Secret Conversations are inaccessible to the government and Facebook.

So how do you get Secret Conversations? There’s a good chance that you already have it. To check, just go Messenger, tap the home icon on the bottom of the screen, and then tap the new message icon in the upper right corner. If you have the update, you’ll see the word “Secret” in the upper right corner. Tap on that to start your encrypted chat.

If you don’t have the secret chat feature yet, it may be because you need to update Messenger. To do that, go to the App Store, hit “Updates” in the lower right corner, and check to see if you have any updates for Messenger available. If you do, download and install the update, and start sending all of your darkest, deepest secrets to your closest friends. If you still don’t have Secret Conversations, hold tight. Facebook says that the feature isn’t yet available to all users, so you may simply need to wait until the update gets to you.

Images: Brothers91/E+/Getty Images; Giphy