Meta to Remove End-to-End Encryption Feature from Instagram Direct Messages

Meta has announced it will discontinue end-to-end encryption on direct messages (DM) in Instagram. According to an update on the company’s support page, the feature will no longer be supported after 8 May 2026.

Unlike WhatsApp, end-to-end encryption on Instagram was never available to all users and was not enabled by default. This feature could only be used by users in certain regions who manually chose to activate it on specific conversations.

In a statement, Meta’s spokesperson said the decision was made due to low usage rates. According to the company, only a small number of users chose to enable end-to-end encryption on Instagram DMs.

“Because very few people chose to use end-to-end encrypted messaging on DMs, we will remove this option from Instagram in the coming months,” said Meta’s spokesperson, as reported by Engadget on Sunday (15 March 2026).

The spokesperson added that users who wish to continue using end-to-end encrypted messaging can switch to WhatsApp. However, Meta did not provide detailed clarification on the encryption status for Facebook Messenger.

The company previously began enabling end-to-end encryption as the default setting in Messenger in 2023 following a development process that lasted several years. The Messenger support page currently states that Meta is in the process of securing private messages with end-to-end encryption by default.