In a new support document, Twitter has detailed what you’ll be able to anticipate from the primary model of the platform’s encrypted direct messages. Maybe most notably, to have the ability to ship and obtain encrypted messages, you’ll must pay Twitter for the power to take action. Platforms like WhatsApp, Messenger, Signal, and iMessage already supply encrypted messaging without spending a dime, so having to pay for the function on Twitter may be a tough capsule to swallow.
In line with the doc, encrypted DMs are solely accessible in case you are a verified consumer (any person who pays for Twitter Blue), a verified group (a company that pays $1,000 per month), or an affiliate of a verified group (which prices $50 per month per person). Each the sender and recipient should be on the most recent model of the Twitter app (on cellular and internet). And an encrypted DM recipient should observe the sender, have despatched a message to the sender up to now, or settle for a DM request from the sender in some unspecified time in the future.
If you’re an individual who can ship encrypted messages to any person who can obtain them, you’ll see a lock toggle when you’re drafting a message. In an encrypted dialog, you’ll additionally see a small lock icon subsequent to the avatar of the particular person you’re chatting with. Encrypted DMs might be separate from unencrypted ones.
Encrypted DMs at present have a number of limitations and a really massive flaw. You may solely ship them in one-on-one conversations; Twitter says it’ll “quickly” deliver the function to teams. You may solely ship textual content and hyperlinks. And Twitter warns that it doesn’t have protections towards man-in-the-middle assaults. “Because of this, if somebody — for instance, a malicious insider, or Twitter itself because of a obligatory authorized course of — had been to compromise an encrypted dialog, neither the sender or receiver would know,” Twitter says.
The corporate is planning mechanisms to make man-in-the-middle assaults tougher and alert customers if one occurs. “As Elon Musk stated, on the subject of Direct Messages, the usual ought to be, if somebody places a gun to our heads, we nonetheless can’t entry your messages,” the corporate wrote. “We’re not fairly there but, however we’re engaged on it.”
Twitter additionally notes that whereas messages and reactions to encrypted DMs are encrypted, “metadata (recipient, creation time, and so on.) are usually not, and neither is any linked content material (solely hyperlinks themselves, not any content material they seek advice from, is encrypted).”
Encrypted DMs appear to be a precedence for Musk; it’s a function he spelled out as a part of “Twitter 2.0” for workers in November. However blue checkmarks are already unpopular enough, and I doubt that forcing you to pay for an essential function you’ll be able to simply get without spending a dime elsewhere goes to enhance their status.