Meta is reportedly on the brink of begin testing chat interoperability between WhatsApp and different messaging apps. In a brand new replace for the beta model of WhatsApp for Android, WABetaInfo found a brand new “third-party chats” display that’s at present not purposeful but, however it does give a sign of the under-the-hood work that’s being executed to adjust to the EU’s Digital Markets Act.
WhatsApp at present has over 2 billion customers globally, making it one of many largest messaging apps available on the market. Nonetheless, the times of WhatsApp working as a walled backyard might quickly be over.
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📝 WhatsApp beta for Android 2.23.19.8: what’s new?
WhatsApp is engaged on complying with new EU laws by creating help for chat interoperability, and it is going to be accessible in a future replace of the app!https://t.co/XI6zMoOD5P pic.twitter.com/Jpd9Leh2Ki
— WABetaInfo (@WABetaInfo) September 10, 2023
Final week, the EU Fee designated Meta as one of many “gatekeepers” that might want to change a few of its core platform companies to adjust to the Digital Markets Act. Different firms designated as gatekeepers by the EU Fee embody Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Apple, ByteDance (TikTok), and Microsoft.
Relating to Meta, the EU Fee recognized 6 core platform companies which might be at present problematic, with WhatsApp and Fb Messenger falling into the ’Quantity Unbiased Interpersonal Communications Providers’ (NIICS). This class designates the messaging apps that the EU needs to change into interoperable with different messaging companies.
The EU’s Digital Markets Act provides Meta six months to element its plans relating to the implementation of message interoperability on WhatsApp and Fb Messenger. Nonetheless, the EU Fee stated that the requirement will solely apply “both after 6 months, 2 years or 4 years following the designation and needs to be applied by the gatekeeper 3 months after the cheap request.”
WhatsApp encrypts all messages by default, and it’s not clear but how the corporate will be capable to apply the identical end-to-end encryption know-how to messages coming from different messaging companies. Anyway, it seems to be just like the EU Fee is conscious that the implementation might take a while.
Apple’s iMessage isn’t on the listing of gatekeepers but, however the Fee opened an investigation to find out if it needs to be designated as a gatekeeper, though Apple has been arguing the opposite. This investigation needs to be accomplished inside a most of 5 months.
