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News

• WhatsApp adding end-to-end encryption to message service

  Ramping up efforts to keep its customers' messages safe from snooping, WhatsApp said Tuesday that it now supports end-to-end encryption for messages sent between users.

• BlackBerry upgrades BBM with timed messages

  Taking a page from the Snapchat playbook, BlackBerry will let BBM messaging service users control how long messages and pictures can be viewed, hoping the feature, along with other new capabilities, will result in a new revenue stream.

• Facebook to require Messenger app for mobile chat

  If you like to send messages via Facebook when you're on the move, get ready to download a new app.

• Chinese users tire of older social networking sites

  Social networking sites in China that are modeled on Facebook are having a hard time holding on to users, with customers like Beijing resident Shi Yunfeng, drifting away to newer services.

• Encrypted instant messaging project seeks to obscure metadata

  Security researchers have a working prototype of an instant messaging application that aims to thoroughly obscure and scrub evidence that two parties have been chatting.

• PayPal chief joins Facebook to strengthen mobile messaging

  A stronger set of features, possibly including payments, might be coming to Facebook's messaging properties now that former PayPal president David Marcus has come to work for the social network.

• Enterprise messaging services fight to make themselves heard, but are they doomed already?

  Odds are, you probably don't communicate with friends and family the same way you did a decade ago. The rise of the text message and the fall of the phone call as ways to stay in touch has been precipitous, even if the centrality of email has been unquestioned for far longer than 10 years.

• Here's how to chat with your Facebook friends using encryption

  Facebook's messaging application doesn't support encryption, but an open-source chat program, Cryptocat, has made it possible to chat with friends there over an encrypted connection.

• Facebook kills Poke and Camera apps

  Facebook has removed its standalone Poke app, an early clone of Snapchat, as well as its Camera app, from Apple's iTunes app store.

• Unify sets timetable for launch of its Project Ansible unified communications service

  Unify has set a timetable for the launch of its Project Ansible unified communications product, with beta testing scheduled for May.

• Groups ask US FTC to investigate Facebook's purchase of WhatsApp

  The U.S. Federal Trade Commission should investigate Facebook's proposed US$19 billion acquisition of mobile messaging app WhatsApp -- and possibly block it -- because of the potential impact on users' privacy, two privacy groups said in a complaint filed Thursday.

• Microsoft finally rolls out Skype-Outlook.com integration to all users

  After testing a preview version of the Outlook.com-Skype integration for almost a year in some markets, Microsoft has now made it generally available to all users.

• BBM coming to Windows Phone, Nokia X

  BlackBerry's mobile messaging service BBM will be available for Windows Phone and Nokia X users this summer, the company announced Monday during Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

• Orange hasn't given up competing for the future of messaging

  Orange is hoping it can compete more effectively with over-the-top messaging vendors thanks to an upgraded version of its Libon service that lets uses chat with anyone who has a device with an HTML browser.

• Microsoft pushes ahead with Skype-Lync integration

  Microsoft will demonstrate on Tuesday how Lync and Skype users will be able to communicate via video conferencing, the next stage of the integration between its enterprise unified communications server and its consumer IM and IP telephony network.