Apparently, Twitter is working on implement Signal encryption in your direct messages. That would improve the privacy of those messages, becoming device-to-device. At the security level, the private messages of the social network would become one of the safest messaging options.
From standard encryption to device-to-device encryption
Twitter will adopt the Signal Protocol for Encrypted DMs
Seeing code references of the Signal Protocol inside Twitter’s iOS app pic.twitter.com/uHKlf9kFVX
—Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) November 26, 2022
The developer Jane Manchun Wong has been the one who has discovered the mentions of the Signal protocol. Thanks to him not even Twitter could know what users send to each other in privatewhich right now you can do.
Oh look! Some code I wrote four years ago. https://t.co/Z4PcLLbrV8
—Brandon Carpenter (@bhcarpenter) November 27, 2022
Engineer and former Twitter worker Brandon Carpenter has acknowledged his work on the discovery, revealing that the idea had been circulating around the company since at least 2018. It hasn’t been done sooner because of the difficulty of implementing the same features that Twitter direct messages have today. Musk may now force this update.
We may end up with Telegram-style Twitter direct messages: no device-to-device encryption by default but with that encryption optional for more sensitive messages. And perhaps those messages can only be consulted from one device, without being able to be synchronized everywhere.
We don’t know when we could see this news made official, but for now I would suggest patience. Twitter’s offices are still in complete chaos, and it’s going to take time for the service to get back to business as usual and adjust to the new designs by Elon Musk.
Image | Akshar Dave