By March 6, 2024, the historic Digital Markets Act (DMA) of the European Commission is scheduled to take effect. We already know how businesses such as Google want to adhere to the law. One of the few applications identified as a gatekeeper is WhatsApp, which is owned by Meta. This means that before the deadline, WhatsApp must enable interoperability with other messaging apps like Signal or Telegram. Back in September, we were first shown an early version of third-party messaging. How this may be done has been made clear by a few of the app’s beta versions released over the weekend.
Why is WhatsApp better than other messaging apps?
Over the weekend, WABetaInfo delved into a few WhatsApp beta releases, namely versions 2.24.5.20 and 2.24.6.2, which provided us with a decent understanding of the process by which the program would enable messages from other services. The former displays a conversation detail box for messaging programs that is still under development. According to WABetaInfo, Instagram isn’t classified as a third-party app under the future interoperability plans; rather, it was only presented as an example in the image below.
In the meanwhile, the recently released WhatsApp beta for Android (v2.24.6.2) provides us with a quick preview of how users might handle WhatsApp communications with third parties. The option to switch off third-party conversations is readily available, and it is followed by a Selected applications option that presumably directs users to the whole list of apps that support third-party chats.
WhatsApp is working on integrating third-party conversations for the iPhone app as well as the Android app. This implies that the functionality could soon launch in the EU. This new interoperability-focused feature will only be available in the “European Region,” according to a recent notice from WhatsApp on third-party chats. This means that users outside of the EU won’t be able to access it on their accounts unless more governments around the world enact laws akin to the DMA.
Though third-party talks on WhatsApp are a good place to start when trying to counter Big Tech’s hegemony, there are significant restrictions (at least at first). Group chats and voice/video calls will not be possible in this mode, according to WABetaInfo’s research. But future versions to WhatsApp could include these features as well.
