Meta to discontinue encrypted chats on Instagram, users asked to save data before deadline

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Meta Platforms, the social media company, is considering dropping the end-to-end encrypted messaging feature on the Instagram application, which will impact users who use it for private chats.

Reportedly, Instagram will cease to have end-to-end encrypted chats starting May 2026. When the change is implemented, the conversations made by using the direct messaging system of the platform will not have this extra security feature that ensures that only the sender and the receiver can see the contents of the messages.

Instagram has also allegedly started to notify users who have encrypted chats turned on. Such conversations will ultimately be lost unless users download or back up the messages and media stored in them before the feature is discontinued.

It is supposed that the decision is associated with the low usage of the encryption option on Instagram. Although the feature was also brought as a privacy-oriented option, very few users turned it on.

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Meta still has good encryption on WhatsApp, which this company positions as its primary platform for fully encrypted chats.

The decision is likely to cause new debates among privacy researchers and digital rights activists. Certain cybersecurity experts feel that eliminating encryption may facilitate the trend of which platforms can track harmful material and impose safety regulations, whereas others feel that it would diminish the shield around the conversation among its users.

With the countdown to the deadline, the encrypted Instagram chat users are also being advised to archive important messages or media before the feature is abolished.

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