Twitter reportedly working on end-to-end encryption for DMs
Twitter is reportedly working on improving security surrounding its direct messaging feature by adding end-to-end encryption, Bleeping Computer reports.
Mobile researcher Jane Manchun Wong noticed additions to Twitter’s source code for Android that reference “encryption keys”, indicating that the micro-blogging platform could be working on implementing the highly-requested feature.
“This number was generated from your encryption keys from this conversation,” one of the strings in the source code reads.
“If it matches the number in the recipient’s phone, end-to-end encryption is guaranteed.”
Twitter is bringing back end-to-end encrypted DMs
Seeing signs of the feature being worked on in Twitter for Android: https://t.co/YtOPHH3ntD pic.twitter.com/5VODYt3ChK
— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) November 16, 2022
Twitter CEO Elon Musk responded to Wong’s post with a winking emoji, suggesting that the feature is indeed in the works.
According to Bleeping Computer, Twitter attempted to add end-to-end encryption to its direct messaging feature in 2018, but the company abandoned the project.
Wong’s Tweets mention a “conversation key”, indicating that Twitter’s end-to-end encryption could be symmetric, requiring both people in a chat to use the same key for encryption and decryption.
When a message is sent, it is transformed into indecipherable text that sits in that state while in transit, preventing intermediaries like Internet service providers or even Twitter itself from reading the message.
It is then deciphered once it reaches the user with the corresponding conversation key.
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