Twitter is launching encrypted DMs for paying subscribers

Twitter revealed that encrypted direct messages are now supported. It allows subscribers to communicate without the platform storing their messages, which will be available only on the device.

The big catch is that only paying members will get it - it includes verified users and organizations or their affiliates. The requirement is for both the sender and recipient, meaning if you are not paying at least $8/mo for Twitter Blue, encrypted DMs will remain unavailable.

Encrypted messages will appear as separate conversations and are currently limited to one-to-one messages; this means no group chats for now.

Other limitations of these messages include no protection from “man-in-the-middle attacks,”. The compulsory legal process means Twitter be able to compromise the conversation, and neither the sender nor the receiver would know. Messages and links will be encrypted by themselves, but metadata such as recipient, creation time, or linked content would not be.

Hopefully, this isn’t the final stage of encrypted DMs because we don’t expect Twitter users to pull $8/mo out of their pockets to access a feature that is freely available on WhatsApp, Messenger, Signal, and iMessage.

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