Make sure no one reads your conversations in the Messages app with this simple setting for your iPhone, iPad or Mac.

Ensuring the security and privacy of our communications is more important than ever, and that’s where Contact Key Verification (CKV) comes into play in the Messaging app on your iPhone, iPad or Mac. This feature enables us to verify the authenticity and integrity of our conversations, as well as that no one is listening in without our consent, and ensures that we’re communicating with the right people.

Improve the security of our conversations almost automatically
Contact Key Verification is a security feature that, when activated, automatically alerts us if a new device is added to the conversation. This feature is invaluable for keeping our conversations private and secure, as it ensures that only devices authorized by our contacts can receive our messages.

Additionally, by activating this verification, we can obtain a contact hash that we can otherwise verify with our contact to confirm that we are indeed talking to the person in question. The second authentication, while not usually required, can be critical in certain situations.

To use Contact Key Verification and enhance the security of our conversations, all of our devices must be updated to iOS or iPadOS 17.2, macOS 14.2, or watchOS 10.2 or later. Activating CKV is then as simple as performing the following steps:

Open the Settings app on your iPhone, iPad or Mac.
Tap our name at the top.
Tap Contact Key Verification at the bottom.
Enable the Message Authentication option.
If necessary, copy the public key verification code and post or send it so others can verify that they are actually writing to us.

Contact key verification is another measure to enhance our security and privacy. A tool that protects our conversations and checks that we are talking to the person we really should be without having to perform any other action, simply by activating the appropriate option. Of course, in many cases, this tool is not necessary, but if it were, it would give us more peace of mind when communicating.