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Never sharing your devices with anyone and always logging out whenever you’re done chatting still won’t fully cover you, either. Even deleting message threads isn’t a guarantee that what you say will stay between you and the other party.
For the most privacy possible in Messenger, you want end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) conversations. Starting at a device level (i.e., one end of the chat), the conversation is locked with a set of keys. Only you and whomever else is in your convo knows what they are. (More specifically, your devices do.) As the messages transmit back and forth between everyone, they remain locked down.
On Facebook, end-to-end encryption is only available via Secret Conversations, which you have to start independently of any existing message threads or groups you’re already part of. If you’re part of a Secret Conversation, it’ll bear the label “End-to-end encrypted.”
If none of your chats have this label, it means all your communication is not encrypted. You’ll need to start a Secret Conversation to keep your messages private. Or at least—more private than standard. There’s a catch.
In theory, no one else outside a Secret Conversation should be able to decipher what’s been said. But Facebook has the ability to review messages that are reported. Also, the other person in your chat can still share or screenshot what you say.