Meta stops end-to-end encryption for Instagram: what will change as of May 8?

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As of May 8, direct messages on Instagram are no longer protected with end-to-end encryption. Meta announced the decision via its own official support page, in an extremely brief explanation that raises more questions than it answers.

The official reason is low usage. A company spokesperson explained that very few users turned on encryption in private chats, and therefore the option will disappear in the coming months. According to Meta, those who want to continue writing with end-to-end encryption can do so through WhatsApp.

The painful part is that, as several tests showed, the feature was never really promoted: activating it required at least four steps in the menu, and its availability was also never rolled out to all users. In practice, Meta is now removing a feature that the company itself never really invested in and that few people used.

What is end-to-end encryption?

End-to-end encryption is a system for securing messages that works with unique cryptographic keys assigned to the devices participating in a conversation. The message is encrypted during transmission and can only be decrypted by the authorized participants - not by the platform, not by third parties and not by Meta itself. It's the most robust form of protection for private digital communications, as the content would remain unreadable even in the event of a server leak.

Removing the feature technically gives Meta back the ability to access the content of conversations on Instagram. That paves the way for automatic moderation, content tracking through artificial intelligence and the ability to respond to requests from judicial authorities.

A break from seven years of promises

In 2019, Mark Zuckerberg was still talking about the importance of encryption, outlining a vision in which privacy would be the inevitable future scenario for social media networks. He wrote that not even Meta would be able to read the content of posts; seven years later, the company has abandoned that course entirely.

This change in direction is not an isolated one. As the BBC reported, two weeks ago, TikTok announced that it won't implement end-to-end encryption for direct messages. The platform argues that the technology could make TikTok more insecure because it would limit its ability to detect malicious activity. Two major platforms, in two weeks, opting for the same direction.

Users currently using encrypted chats will receive a notification in the app with instructions to download messages and media files before the May 8 deadline. Meta did not clarify whether encrypted chats will be removed after that date.

(©Instagram Help Center via GreenMe.it 2026 / Managing Editor: Julie Morgan - The Press Junction / Picture: ©Miguel Bruna via Unsplash)