The messaging platform owned by Microsoft adds end-to-end encryption to its chats thanks to the “Private Conversation”
After WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and Google Allo comes Skype. The Microsoft-owned VoIP calling and video calling software is the latest instant messaging platform to integrate the Signal end-to-end encryption protocol into its source code.
Manufactured by the software company of the same name – and used by the instant messaging app of the same name – Signal is widely recognized as the best cryptographic protocol for chats. Thanks to this addition, Skype joins the group of chats that allow their users to send private and secure messages (such as Google Allo’s incognito mode, Messenger’s Secret Conversations and all conversations on Whatsapp and Signal). At the moment, end-to-end encryption will only be applied to text chats (text messages, images, videos), while VoIP calls and video calls are still “in the clear”.
How to create private chat with Skype
With end-to-end encryption, Microsoft developers have been able to add the “Private conversation” feature to the many already present in Skype. To create a private chat you’ll have to click on the “+” button at the top of the user interface and, among the available options, choose “Private conversation”. At this point it will be possible to choose the contact to whom you want to send an invitation to join the secret chat. The chosen contact has seven days to accept and start messaging with you in a secure and encrypted way: in case the invitation expires, you’ll have to send another one for a new encrypted chat. If the invitation expires, you will have to send another one for a new encrypted chat. If, on the other hand, the invitation is accepted, the private conversation will appear in the list along with the other active chats: just click on it to read the sent messages or send new ones.
To delete Skype secret chat, you just have to locate it in the list of active chats, click on it with the right mouse button and, in the contextual menu that will appear, choose the item “Delete conversation”. In order to recover deleted Skype messages, all you have to do is send a new invitation and wait for our contact to accept it: the entire message history will be recovered from the servers, decrypted and made accessible to the two contacts again.