The popular video conferencing app Zoom sparked a huge controversy months ago when it announced Encryption end-to-end encryption for the app. Including the E2EE (End-to-end encryption) option was a commendable thing to do, but of course there was a catch. The feature would only be available for the paid version of the service.

End-to-end encryption is a security feature that protects users’ data during messaging. The goal is to prevent third parties from collecting information exchanged in a digital conversation between two people. This even applies to the app’s administrators. So, with concerns about privacy and data mining growing every day, E2EE is becoming essential.

Zoom backtracks, but leaves out features

After much criticism because the option was only for those who paid, the Zoom backtracked, and said it would make encryption available to all users. With the new feature available, only invited participants in a video conference will have access to encryption keys, and thus access to the virtual meeting. Not even Zoom's own servers will have access to the content shared by users.

Here are the caveats. Zoom's E2EE disables several features. For example, you can't join a room before the host, or record in the cloud, stream, or transcribe live. In addition, group chats, voting, private chat between participants 1-on-1, and meeting reactions are also banned.

Phase 2 of E2EE will begin in 2021, Zoom said. After that, the company expects to work with user feedback. To enable end-to-end encryption on Zoom, you need to go to Zoom app on desktop for Windows or Mac. The Apple still needs to be approved the update for iPhone and iPad.

Read more about the new feature on the Zoom blog.