Zoom’s end-to-end encryption (E2EE) has arrived, allowing both free and paid users to secure their meetings so that only participants, not Zoom or anyone else, can access their content.

Zoom E2EE has launched in technical preview, which means Zoom is asking for feedback on the feature for 30 days. However, the company says that E2EE will continue to be available after this period. Instructions on how to enable it can be found in Zoom’s help center.

Zoom has previously offered encryption for its calls, but the data was only encrypted between each meeting participant and Zoom’s servers, rather than being end-to-end encrypted between participants. 

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Once E2EE is enabled, you can check Zoom is using the more secure kind of encryption using the green shield at the top left of a meeting window. The shield will show a padlock rather than a checkmark if the meeting is encrypted end-to-end.

Zoom’s E2EE meetings support a maximum of 200 participants. That won’t affect users on Zoom’s Basic or Pro plans, which max out at 100 participants, but it could be a problem for Business or Enterprise subscribers which would otherwise allow for up to 300 or 500 participants.

This initial launch is just the first of four phases Zoom is planning for its end-to-end encryption offering. The next phase is scheduled to include better identity management and support for single sign-on and is planned to launch next year.