With the Digital Markets Act (DMA) deadline looming just a month away, WhatsApp is poised to introduce support for other messaging networks within its app.
Dick Brouwer, an engineering director at WhatsApp, revealed in an interview with Wired that the platform, boasting over 2 billion users, is prepared to offer interoperability.
“There’s real tension between offering an easy way to offer this interoperability to third parties whilst at the same time preserving the WhatsApp privacy, security, and integrity bar. I think we’re pretty happy with where we’ve landed,” Brouwer shared with the publication.
The European Union mandated messaging interoperability under the DMA in 2022, requiring gatekeepers like WhatsApp and Messenger to open up their services to other chat apps.
Meta is also in the process of integrating support for other chat apps into Messenger. Initially, these features will focus on one-on-one chats, enabling users to exchange text, audio, video, images, and files across apps. As previously reported by WABetaInfo, this feature will reside in a new sub-menu atop the inbox called “Third-party chats.”
Brouwer, who spearheaded the rollout of end-to-end encryption for Messenger last year, emphasized to Wired that this will be an opt-in experience to mitigate spam and scams.
“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,” he explained.
Companies seeking interoperability with Meta’s system will need to sign an agreement, the details of which are not yet public. WhatsApp will mandate end-to-end encryption to enable interoperability. However, Apple’s recent App Store changes hint that the terms might not be straightforward.
Recently, Matthew Hodgson, founder of the open-source messaging protocol Matrix, revealed that it has collaborated with WhatsApp on an “experimental” basis to ensure the protocol works while maintaining end-to-end encryption.
It remains uncertain if other operators like Telegram, Viber, and Google plan to introduce interoperability support with WhatsApp.
Brouwer cautioned Wired that third-party chats and WhatsApp native chats may not achieve feature parity, as interoperability could introduce new privacy and security concerns.
Apps consolidating multiple messaging services under one platform have been under scrutiny in recent months. In October, Automattic, owner of WordPress.com, acquired Texts.com for $50 million. Beeper, founded by Pebble smartwatch creator Eric Migicovsky, garnered attention for its attempt — which Apple thwarted — to bring iMessage to Android phones.