Meta has announced plans to discontinue support for end-to-end encryption (E2EE) for chats on Instagram after May 8, 2026.
"If you have chats that are impacted by this change, you will see instructions on how you can download any media or messages you may want to keep," the social media giant said in a help document.
"If you're on an older version of Instagram, you may also need to update the
"If you're on an older version of Instagram, you may also need to update the app before you can download your affected chats."
When reached for comment, this is what Meta had to say: "Very few people were opting in to end-to-end encrypted messaging in DMs, so we're removing this option from Instagram in the coming months.
Anyone who wants to keep messaging with end-to-end encryption can easily do that on WhatsApp."
The American company first began testing E2EE for Instagram direct messages in 2021 as part of CEO Mark Zuckerberg's "privacy-focused vision for social networking." The feature is currently " only available in some areas " and is not enabled by default.