Meta Instagram is removing end-to-end encryption from DMs after May 8, 2026. With this change, the privacy of your chat will end and Meta will be able to read your messages. The company has cited low usage as the reason.
Many of us use Instagram every day. Now its parent company Meta has made an announcement which is related to your privacy. The company has confirmed that the end-to-end encryption feature will be removed from Instagram’s direct messages (DM) after May 8, 2026. Meta has given this information on its support page. This means that this extra security layer will no longer be there on your chats. Users whose chats are encrypted under this feature will receive a notification in advance, so that they can download their chat data if they wish.
What is end-to-end encryption?
Now the question arises what is this end-to-end encryption? If you understand in simple language, this is a security feature in which no third person other than the sender and recipient of the message, not even Instagram or Meta itself, can read your chat. This technology converts your message into a code while sending and that code opens only on the receiver’s phone. With this, your conversations remain completely safe from hackers etc. Now this feature is going to be closed.
Many apps like Signal and WhatsApp use this technology so that users’ conversations remain completely private. In WhatsApp, this feature remains on by ‘default’ i.e. automatically, but on Instagram, users had to select it themselves.
Instagram started this feature only in 2023. Meta says that very few people were using it, hence the decision was taken to close it. The company is sending advance notices to users so that they can download their encrypted chats and media files. Even though the company is citing low usage as the reason, it is also being discussed that removing encryption will make it easier for Meta to process messaging data.
Meta can now read your chats
Once the encryption is removed, your messages will be visible to the company as they pass through Meta’s servers. One argument of Meta is that this will help in stopping illegal content. Meta also seems to have a bigger purpose behind this step. She wants to keep Instagram separate as a social media platform and WhatsApp as a private messaging platform.