San Francisco, Jan 28 (IANS): Meta-owned Messenger's end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) chats and calls are now available to everyone.

According to The Verge, Messenger added E2EE chatting in 2016 when it was still called Facebook Messenger, and Meta was still Facebook.

Now many things have changed, but the optional feature is fully rolled out to everyone, with toggles to encrypt text messages as well as group chats and calls, the report said.

Meta has discussed switching to E2EE as a default, but that may not happen until next year at the earliest, as some regulators claim this would harm public safety.

There are two ways Messenger users can opt into the secure chats, either via vanish mode, by swiping up on an existing chat to enter one where messages automatically disappear when the window is closed or the original version that was introduced in 2016 as Secret Conversations.

Users can turn that on by toggling the lock icon when they start a new chat.

In addition to a full rollout of the feature, Messenger has some new features to enable as well.

Now, in end-to-end encrypted chats, users can use GIFs, stickers, reactions, and long-press to reply or forward messages.