New Delhi, May 9: US tech giant Meta has officially switched off end-to-end encrypted direct messages on Instagram, discontinuing the privacy-focused feature for users globally.

The tech company said users with existing encrypted chats are being notified inside the app and urged to download any important media or messages they wish to keep before the feature is fully discontinued.

The move marks a reversal from Meta's earlier plans to make encrypted messaging a standard feature across its apps.

End‑to‑end encryption, often abbreviated E2EE, ensures only the sender and receiver can read messages, and when the feature is removed, Meta will be able to access message content, including photos, videos and voice notes, if required.

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Instagram will continue to use standard encryption, commonly used by services such as Gmail and other online platforms.

Standard encryption protects chats during transmission between devices and servers, but allows the platform to access content when necessary. 

Meta had previously described privacy‑focused messaging as “the future of communication” and spent years reportedly expanding encryption across Facebook Messenger and Instagram.

Facebook Messenger eventually received default E2EE while Instagram’s rollout remained limited.

Meta decided to discontinue the Instagram feature because only a small number of users were actively enabling encrypted chats, multiple reports said.

However, critics said that privacy tools often see low adoption when it is kept as optional, as users must manually turn them on.

Child protection groups such as the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children NSPCC welcomed the rollback of E2EE, saying encrypted messaging will make it difficult to detect harmful activity and child abuse online.

Children who spend over 30 minutes on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat are likely to experience a gradual decline in their ability to concentrate, according to a study of more than 8, 000 children from around age 10 through age 14.

The study was conducted on children with the average time spent on social media, watching videos, and playing video games -- from approximately 30 minutes a day for 9-year-olds to 2.5 hours for 13-year-olds.

(IANS)