Anton Gabriel, writing for Yugatech;

The company confirmed the change through an update on its support page. Meta said users affected by the removal will receive instructions on how to download messages or media they want to keep.

End-to-end encryption prevents messages from being accessed by anyone except the sender and recipient, including the platform itself.

This move will affect more than 500 million daily active users on Instagram.

Instagram also published a support article confirming the removal of the encryption then suggesting to use WhatsApp instead.

End-to-end encrypted messaging on Instagram is no longer supported as of May 8, 2026.

• If you have chats that are impacted by this change, you will see instructions on how you can download any media or messages you may want to keep.
• If you’re on an older version of Instagram, you may also need to update the app before you can download your affected chats.

For Meta’s other end-to-end encrypted chat options, check out WhatsApp.