WhatsApp, the widely used messaging platform boasting over 2 billion users, is preparing to enable unprecedented interoperability with competing third-party chat apps by April.
This move is in response to the latest requirements outlined in the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), aimed at fostering greater choice and seamless communication within the realm of digital platforms.
Balancing Openness and Privacy
According to Dick Brouwer, WhatsApp’s engineering director leading the interoperability initiative, the company aims to strike a careful balance in “offering an easy way to offer this interoperability to third parties whilst at the same time preserving the WhatsApp privacy, security, and integrity bar that people expect.”
The DMA, which was agreed upon by EU lawmakers in 2022 after years of debate, requires major platforms like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger to open up their closed messaging ecosystems and allow genuine interoperability with smaller third-party apps.
This means WhatsApp users in the EU will soon be able to seamlessly exchange texts, photos, videos, and files in ongoing conversations with friends, family, and professional contacts on rival networks.
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“I can choose whether or not I want to participate in being open to exchanging messages with third parties. This is important because it could be a big source of spam and scams,” said Brouwer, noting that the upcoming interoperability will be an opt-in feature to maximize user control.
Seamless Cross-Platform Messaging
Initially, WhatsApp will focus the interoperability on one-on-one conversations across platforms and make them accessible via a new dedicated “Third-Party Chats” menu at the top of the WhatsApp inbox, making cross-platform messaging nearly as seamless as native chats within the app.
In order to enable secure universal messaging in alignment with WhatApp’s hallmark end-to-end encryption, the company will require partnering third-party services to guarantee the same level of encryption for interoperable messages.
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WhatsApp has already worked with the open-source protocol, Matrix, on an experimental basis to find solutions that maintain encryption while permitting cross-platform communication, but negotiations with key rivals remain in early, undefined stages.
However, Brouwer cautioned in an interview with Wired that full feature parity between WhatsApp’s native chats and third-party interoperable chats may be difficult to achieve given potential new challenges for security, privacy, and integrity standards across varied services.
Undefined Plans from Big Tech
It remains unclear whether other dominant global messengers like Telegram, Signal, Viber, and Google Chat plan to offer seamless interoperability with WhatsApp in the near future.
Smaller companies will have to enter into still-confidential partnership agreements with Meta, WhatApp’s parent company, in order to gain access to cross-platform messaging.
The DMA interoperability provisions could profoundly impact global digital communication if broadly adopted by big tech leaders.
The messaging openness mandate has already prompted Meta to commit to offering similar third-party integration in Facebook Messenger to its vast user base.
This dramatic shift could soon empower billions of users on the two most popular messaging apps to seamlessly connect across digital boundaries that previously isolated rival networks.
