Facebook Messenger’s end-to-end encrypted mode, Secret Conversations, is getting a substantial update today. The company is including several new features that would make the mode attractive to use and bring it on par with regular messages, including typing indicators in chats, reactions, and GIF support.
Secret Conversations debuted a few years ago on Messenger, but it was fairly bare-bones, offering just one-on-one messaging support. The feature picked up support for end-to-end encrypted group chats and calls in summer 2021, and today’s update enables almost everything you want from the regular Messenger app. This includes emoji reactions, typing indicators, GIFs and stickers, forwarding, and the ability to directly reply to messages. There are also media-related features that include the ability to save media and edit video or photos before sending. Messenger will also let you know when someone screenshots your conversation. Secret Conversations are meant to be secret after all, but no amount of encryption thwarts a simple PNG screenshot by the other party.
End-to-end encrypted chats are, as the name implies, more secure than unencrypted chats and are used as a selling point for smaller messaging services including Signal and Telegram. The other Meta-owned messaging service, WhatsApp, also has its app encrypted (albeit by default). With the company moving to merge both services, at least on the back-end, having Messenger’s Secret Conversations reach parity with WhatsApp’s default experience is a necessary step. “We want to make Messenger interoperable with WhatsApp, so that you could send messages back and forth again, just like connecting email and different email accounts,” Meta’s Loredana Crisan said in 2021.
With this update, Messenger just got that much closer to being an app you can rely on for regular, secure conversations.
Two new highly requested iCloud plugins just got added to ChatGPT, giving people who rely on Apple’s Mail and Calendar services a way to search emails, check appointments, and manage their schedules directly through the chatbot.
The integration is rolling out to all ChatGPT plans, including the free tier. You can access it on the web, desktop, and iOS.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.
Samsung’s scandal over its Game Optimizing Service, or GOS, has returned with a bill attached. South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission has tentatively fined the company 20.1 billion won, or about $15.1 million, over gaming claims made for the Galaxy S21, Galaxy S22, and Tab S8.
The regulator says Samsung promoted the devices as gaming powerhouses without disclosing that GOS placed preset CPU and GPU limits on certain demanding games. Samsung disputes that conclusion, calling GOS a legitimate way to manage heat.