Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning we get a small commission if you make a purchase through our links, at no cost to you. For more information, please visit our Disclaimer Page.
Facebook recently rolled out a new feature that allows people to have secret conversations. The feature is said to be handy for those who want to keep their conversations private from the prying eyes of others. But it can also be confusing because you may not know the meaning of these messages.
If you’re just using secret conversation for the first time, it’s normal to ask this question. The “First Seen By This Device” that you keep seeing means that the person with the device in question first enabled the “Secret Conversations” toggle switch on the specified date.
(Attribution: ©alaskla/123RF.COM)
Table of Contents
What does “devices” mean in secret conversation?
Before addressing this question, I’ll start by talking about what secret conversation is and exactly what it includes.
What exactly is a secret conversation?
Secret conversation, first introduced in 2016, is an end-to-end encryption feature on Facebook Messenger. The feature was introduced to enable two people to chat and create conversations in a private space. Interestingly, only the two people in the chat can view the messages.
Other people, including Facebook officials and even law enforcement agents, can gain access to view these messages.
Secret conversation timer
Furthermore, the end-to-end encryption feature (Secret Conversation) has a timer on it, which signs when the messages will disappear.
Once the timer is up, you will no longer be able to see the messages again. Interestingly, you can always set how long you want the timer to last before making the messages disappear.
Setting the timer isn’t a hard thing to do on Facebook messenger’s secret conversation. All you need is to tap on the clock icon, which you can locate where you want to type your message. After that, you need to choose how long you want the message to last before disappearing.
For example, if you choose 1 hour for the timer, your messages will only remain in the chat for 1 hour. After that, it’ll disappear and you won’t be able to see it again.
You can only view the secret conversation on a single device
Another interesting thing about the secret conversation feature is that it only works on a single device at a time. Of course, I’m not saying that you can’t add multiple devices.
Instead, I’m saying that messages in Messanger’s secret conversation can only be read on a single device.
Even if you add multiple devices, once you open the messages with one device, you won’t be able to do that again on another device.
Viewing secret conversations in Messenger
For the sake of those who are new to the secret conversation, here’s how you can start using the feature in your Facebook messenger:
- First, open your messenger and click on Secret. You’ll find that on the top right corner of your screen.
- Next, locate and click on “new message” to start a conversation with your preferred friend. Of course, you need to select the person from the available list.
- After that, before starting a conversation, you need to first set the timer. As earlier mentioned, setting a timer will help you control how long you want the conversation to stay before disappearing. You can choose as little as 30 seconds or even opt for 24 hours for your message timer.
- Start your conversation.
- Don’t forget that you can only read the conversation on a single device even if you have your messenger account added on multiple devices.
Here’s what devices mean in secret conversation
“Devices” in secret conversation means the number of devices you used in signing in the Messenger’s secret conversation feature.
As you already know, it’s possible to add your secret conversation to multiple devices. The only problem is that you can only read a particular conversation from a single device at a time.
To add your secret conversation to multiple devices, all you need is to install the secret conversation app into the devices and sign in to your Messenger account.
After adding a new device for your secret conversation, a notification will be sent to the person you’re chatting with, signaling that you have added a new device.
Additionally, “devices” in secret conversation also represent the other people in the chat. In secret conversation, you’ll see multiple devices added, including yours and the person you’re chatting with.
If the person you’re chatting with adds a new device in a secret conversation, you’ll get a notification in that regard.
The bottom line is that “devices” you keep seeing in your secret conversation represent the different devices that you have added. That’s not all; if you already have people in your secret conversation, the “devices” you keep noticing could also represent them.
Removing a device from the secret conversation
As earlier mentioned, you’ll certainly get a notification once a person exits the secret conversation. The notification will come in the form of a message, stating that “a device was removed from this conversation.”
Yes, if you remove your device from the secret conversation, that’s the exact message that’ll be sent to other devices in the secret conversation.
It’s not possible to remove other people from the secret conversation. However, you can always remove your device if you wish to. Here are the simple and direct steps that you can follow to remove your device below:
- You need to start by opening your Messenger app.
- After that, go to your profile and click on the “Privacy” option. Next, select Secret Conversation.
- On the Secret Conversation page, you’ll see a toggle switch. Tap on it to disable it and remove your device.
- A confirmatory alert will be sent to you, notifying you that you’ve successfully removed a device from the secret conversation.
- That’s it about removing your device from the secret conversation. Keep in mind that with this move, you won’t be able to receive any message again from the secret conversation on the device.
What does secret conversation first seen by this device mean?
The secret conversation is designed to display a lot of things. One of the many things that you’ll notice when using Facebook messenger’s secret conversation feature is “first seen by this device”. But what exactly does that mean?
Well, “first seen by this device” is a feature in the secret conversation; it tells you exactly when the person in question (the owner of the device) first enabled the secret conversation toggle button.
As earlier mentioned, when joining the secret conversation for the first time, you need a Messenger app. From the app, you need to locate the secret conversation feature, which usually comes with a lock icon. To enable the feature, you need to tap the toggle switch in the secret conversation.
The “first seen by this device” is often displayed to show exactly when a user tapped the toggle switch for the first time to enable the secret conversation feature on the device
. You’ll see a date beside the “first seen by this device;” that’s the exact date the feature was first enabled on the device.
The bottom line is that the “first seen by this device” is a feature that notifies you of when a device first enabled the secret conversation feature.
How do you tell if secret conversations are being used?
On Facebook Messenger, when you chat with a friend, the only way to understand that your messages have been delivered is when you see blue message bubbles.
The same thing also goes with secret conversations, except for the fact that the message bubbles will be displayed in black color.
That said, the bottom line is that you can understand if secret conversations are being used through the message bubble. If it turns blue, it means the person isn’t using secret conversation. If you can see a black message bubble, that’s a good sign that secret conversations are being utilized.
In addition to this, if you also notice “Encrypted from one device to the other” next to the image of the person you’re chatting with, it proves that the person is using the secret conversation feature.