How to send "secret" and "disappearing" Facebook messages

Facebook is one of the most popular social media sites in the world. The number of monthly active users is approaching 2 billion worldwide. That's impressive.

People love Facebook for many reasons. Whether it's connecting with people from our past, or using its many appealing new features, we just can't seem to get enough.

The Messenger app is one of Facebook's most useful features. But Messenger just got even better recently with the addition of an end-to-end encryption privacy setting. It allows users to have 'secret conversations' that no one else will have access to, not even Facebook.

Encryption is an extremely secure way to protect your conversations from being heard or seen by anyone but you. It's a method that scrambles your data, so if a hacker intercepts the data, they can't see anything but gibberish.

End-to-end encryption means the encryption extends from one end of the communication pathway to the other. It doesn't offer hackers any point to tap in and steal an unencrypted version of the message.

The end-to-end encryption feature in the Messenger app is the same service used in the Facebook-owned Whatsapp. It will make it impossible for hackers, the government, telecoms and even Facebook itself to read these conversations. Only the sender and recipient can see the messages and only on one device of their choosing.

However, to use the end-to-end encryption feature, you first must turn it on. The default setting for Secret Conversations in the Messenger app is off.

Here are the steps to enable 'secret conversations' in Facebook Messenger on iOS:

• Open the Facebook Messenger app
• Tap the 'Me' button located in the bottom right-hand corner
• This opens a settings page within the app.
• Tap Secret Conversations - That opens the page that allows you to enable secret conversations.
• Once the secret conversations setting is enabled, you're ready to use the end-to-end encryption feature.

Here is how to start a secret conversation in the Messenger app on iOS:

• Choose your device - You can only register one device from which to use Secret Conversations per Facebook account. So the first thing you need to do is choose the device.
• Open Facebook Messenger - Open the Messenger app on the device you selected.
• Tap the compose button - In the upper right-hand corner you will find the compose button. It looks like a pencil and paper.
• Tap Secret - Tap 'Secret' located in the upper right-hand corner.
• Select a recipient - Choose to whom you want to send a message from your list of contacts.
• Set a timer for the message - If you want to make your message disappear at a specific time, tap the stopwatch icon located at the bottom right-hand corner of the screen.
• From there you can choose how long your message will last before it disappears.

Here are the steps to delete secret conversations on Android:

1. Tap Secret Conversations
2. Tap Delete Secret Conversations
3. Tap Delete All

Here is how to delete all secret conversations from your iOS gadget:

• Open the Facebook Messenger app
• Tap the 'Me' button
• Tap Secret Conversations - This opens the page where you enable the feature.
• Tap Delete Secret Conversations - A pop-up window opens asking you to confirm that you want to delete them.
• Tap Delete - All of the secret conversations on your gadget will be wiped out once you tap delete.