There are many reasons why you might want to download your Facebook Messenger Chat history: You may want to save a certain Messenger conversation or you just want to have a backup outside of Facebook. Maybe also you are one of the #deletefacebook people and are looking for a way to backup your data.
Facebook includes a Chat application allowing you to instant message online friends without having to post something on the person's wall. While chatting, Facebook automatically records your entire conversation, storing it in your Messages area. The feature gives you the ability to review your chat history, allowing you to go back and recover information you may have lost. View your messages to restore your chat history in Facebook.
facebook chat records
Facebook was also one of the first social media networks that started offering the live video call option back in 2011. In this article, we are going to provide screen recording solutions for Facebook video call and chat recording on different platforms, including Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS platforms, and we'll show you how you can easily record video calls on Facebook.
Though it is convenient to record the Facebook video calls and chats, we recommend you inform the one who is calling you before recording the video. Let's know how you record your Facebook video calls in the comment below.
You can't delete your entire chat history all at once, but you can clear it out one conversation at a time. On iOS and Android, swipe left on the conversation and select the trash can icon. In a desktop browser, select the menu (three dots) and then Delete. On the desktop app, right-click and select Delete Conversation.
I have always found it strange and honestly, quite troubling that a social media juggernaut like Facebook has no provision to turn off chat recording or at least provide some self-destruct functionality. If you have used Google Hangouts, then I'm sure you are familiar with the "off the record" feature that allows you to chat without leaving any trace of the conversation. This is one area where Hangouts beats Facebook.
There are many reasons you may not want to keep a record of your chats, the most basic being that privacy is a basic human right. You also may not want confidential business information or an intimate personal conversation falling into the wrong hands. And, the fact that spies like the NSA and law enforcement agencies can access your Facebook chats on a whim, should be reason enough to find a way to conduct private, unrecorded conversations on Facebook.
Unfortunately, Facebook is the most popular social network in the world, so simply avoiding it may not be possible, which would be the easiest way to deal with this matter. But, there are ways to thwart Facebook's default chat recording feature.
The answer lies in using free third party applications that encrypt your messages. These applications make use of Off-the-Record Messaging (OTR), a cryptographic protocol for encrypting instant messaging applications. The OTR protocol keeps conversations private. Unlike other cryptographic protocols which produce output that can later be used as a verifiable record of communication, OTR provides complete confidentiality and "deniable encryption"; in essence, a snooping entity cannot prove that two parties had an Internet chat conversation or said anything specific. This feature has proved invaluable for journalism sourcing.
Pidgin is popular Internet messaging client for Windows and Linux. It allows you to combine all your instant messaging applications in one client.It is also one of the easiest plugins to use to encrypt your chats. Download Pidgin and run the installer. Next, you need to download the Off the Record plugin to encrypt conversations and provide security. Download it from cypherpunks.ca and install it on your computer. The first time you run Pidgin, you will be presented with a screen similar to the one shown below.
That's it! You are now set to chat privately with Facebook friends who also use the OTR plugin. To start a private conversation, double click on a friend's name then on Not private and request Pidgin to Start private conversation.
With these applications, the only thing that Facebook can tell is who you chat with and when you chat with them but they cannot decipher or store the content of your chats. But, please take note that encryption software is not a magic bullet. While encrypted chat can prevent Facebook from storing your chats, remember to never trust any software with your life.
Following tests of a new instant messaging platform on Facebook in March 2008,[10][11] the feature, then-titled "Facebook Chat", was gradually released to users in April 2008.[12][13] Facebook revamped its messaging platform in November 2010,[14] and subsequently acquired group messaging service Beluga in March 2011,[15] which the company used to launch its standalone iOS and Android mobile apps on August 9, 2011.[16][17] Facebook later launched a BlackBerry version in October 2011.[18][19] An app for Windows Phone, though lacking features including voice messaging and chat heads, was released in March 2014.[20][21] In April 2014, Facebook announced that the messaging feature would be removed from the main Facebook app and users will be required to download the separate Messenger app.[22][23] An iPad-optimized version of the iOS app was released in July 2014.[24][25] In April 2015, Facebook launched a website interface for Messenger.[26][27] A Tizen app was released on July 13, 2015.[28] Facebook launched Messenger for Windows 10 in April 2016.[29] In October 2016, Facebook released Messenger Lite, a stripped-down version of Messenger with a reduced feature set. The app is aimed primarily at old Android phones and regions where high-speed Internet is not widely available. In April 2017, Messenger Lite was expanded to 132 more countries.[30][31] In May 2017, Facebook revamped the design for Messenger on Android and iOS, bringing a new home screen with tabs and categorization of content and interactive media, red dots indicating new activity, and relocated sections.[32][33]
In April 2020, Facebook began rolling out a new feature called Messenger Rooms, a video chat feature that allows users to chat with up to 50 people at a time. The feature rivals Zoom, an application that gained a lot of popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic.[45] Privacy concerns arose since the feature uses the same data collection policies as mainstream Facebook.[45]
In July 2020, Facebook added a new feature in Messenger that lets iOS users to use Face ID or Touch ID to lock their chats. The feature is called App Lock and is a part of several changes in Messenger regarding privacy and security.[46] The option to view only "Unread Threads" was removed from the inbox, requiring the account holder to scroll through the entire inbox to be certain every unread message has been seen.[47]
In April 2016, Facebook announced a bot platform for Messenger, including an API to build chat bots to interact with users. News publisher bots "message subscribers directly with news and other information",[93][94] while ride-sharing apps can offer a transportation option, hotel chains can answer questions about accommodations, and air travel companies can allow for check-ins, flight updates and travel changes.[95]
In November 2014, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) listed Messenger (Facebook chat) on its Secure Messaging Scorecard. It received a score of 2 out of 7 points on the scorecard. It received points for having communications encrypted in transit and for having recently completed an independent security audit. It missed points because the communications were not encrypted with keys the provider didn't have access to, users could not verify contacts' identities, past messages were not secure if the encryption keys were stolen, the source code was not open to independent review, and the security design was not properly documented.[146][147][148]
Roman Zaikin of Check Point Software Technologies discovered a flaw in Facebook's chat system that made it possible for an attacker to modify or remove any sent message, photo, file or link in a conversation they were part of.
Needing to be part of the conversation might seem a major limitation, but if attackers are somehow able to gain control of someone else's PC or Facebook account, then they are also able to modify all of that person's chat histories with other Facebook users.
"These chats can be admitted as evidence in legal investigations and this vulnerability opens the door for an attacker to hide evidence of a crime or even incriminate an innocent person," Check Point researchers wrote Tuesday, in a blog post describing the flaw.
Given this identifier, it is possible to send instructions to Facebook's servers to modify the message. This can be done by sending the changed message with the old identifier using common website debugging tools to alter the commands Facebook's own website used to send the chat messages in the first place, as Check Point's Zaikin demonstrated. The change in the log happens invisibly, without a fresh notification being sent to devices participating in the conversation.
The problem, Facebook explained in its own blog post about the flaw, was that some implementations of its chat service handled messages with the same identifier in different ways. Most ignored later occurrences of an identifier, showing only the oldest, making it impossible to modify the chat history displayed using Zaikin's technique.
Check Point played down that aspect in its post, suggesting that a "hacker could implement automation techniques to continually outsmart security measures for long-term chat alterations," although if a hacker had that much control of someone's phone, a modified Facebook chat log would probably be the least of their worries.
There is a Chrome extension called Messages Saver for Facebook. You can choose whether to save your chat as just text, then only text messages will be saved, or as an .html file with all smileys, emoji, pictures and other files that you sent in your chat. Or even as a zip file with all the files of your chat saved locally to your computer. 2ff7e9595c
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