Madhurima
Instagram will now have the ability to let users chat on the platform through their laptops via web browsers. The testing for web DMs (Direct Messaging) has begun. A small amount of users from around the world have now been made a part of the trial. However, if this initiative is successful, it might refute Facebook plans of having end to end encryption in all of its social media platforms to ensure privacy.
Once launched, the users can receive new messages, start new group chats or threads, view previous conversations and double click a post in the chats to like a shared post or message. Although, the users won’t be able to capture images or videos, but they’ll be able to view non-disappearing ones. They can also upload images in the DMs from their systems but won’t be able to capture any via the app.
Adam Mosseri, who is Instagram’s CEO mentioned in a tweet that he aspires to “being this to everyone soon.”
This new feature can prove to be very beneficial for anyone who is in the habit of using desktops or laptops the entire day-- like office workers or students. People who suffer from a lack of storage space on their smartphones can also use this feature.
Alex Stamos, one of Facebook’s former Chief Security Officer had tweeted, “This is fascinating, as it cuts directly against the announced goal of E2E encrypted compatibility between FB/IG/WA. Nobody has ever built a trustworthy web-based E2EE messenger, and I was expecting them to drop web support in FB Messenger. Right hand versus left?”
Facebook had also declared that it plans to connect Facebook Messenger, Instagram Direct Message and WhatsApp all together so that it’s convenient for the users to converse across these social media platforms. It also mentioned that it wishes to broaden its end-to-end encryption from WhatsApp towards Instagram Direct and Facebook Messenger. The project can take years to complete. The security protocol only lets the two people engaged in the conversation to view the messages and no one else, not even the social media platform.
Stamos added “Historically, security researchers haven’t been able to store cryptographic secrets in JavaScript, which is how the Instagram website runs. Though this could be solved in the future. he model by which code on the web is distributed, which is directly from the vendor in a customizable fashion. This means that inserting a backdoor for one specific user is much much easier than in the mobile app paradigm.”
