The new bots include a Yahoo Finance bot to help you stay in the know with the latest movers and shakers on the stock market, with the option to read finance news, play games (!) and share your best stock tips with your friends.
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All you’ll need to do is opt to begin a secret conversation, although there will be limits on how many devices you can use to read the encrypted missives. That means only you and the person you send the message to will be able to see it, it’s impossible for any middle man to see it while it’s sending or after it’s sent.
“We recognise that experience may not be right for everyone”, Facebook admitted.
If you’re not already familiar with the MonkeyPets bot, you can send emojis to a virtual pet and it will share a selfie from its “travels” – think of it as a variation on a Tamagotchi.
This level of encryption is not going to be throughout all of Messenger, but just in certain conversations you establish.
Facebook has based its messenger encryption technology on the Signal protocol, an open-source encryption protocol that’s also used to secure WhatsApp.
To keep the flexibility of continuing a conversation across multiple devices, starting a secret conversation with someone is optional. That’s because many people want Messenger to work when you switch between devices, such as a tablet, desktop computer, or phone.
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“It’s table stakes in the industry now for messaging apps to offer this to people”, Messenger product manager Tony Leach told the Wired. “It’s also important to note that in secret conversations we don’t now support rich content like GIFs and videos, making payments, or other popular Messenger features”.
