WhatsApp to open up: Messaging across apps on the horizon

WhatsApp to open up: Messaging across apps on the horizon،

WhatsApp adds new features and offers updates quite often, and its latest plan might just make your life easier. Have you ever been bored of switching between messaging apps to write to different people? Well, soon WhatsApp wants to allow people to message you from another app. This is a big change for its 2 billion users and is happening thanks to the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which comes into effect next month.

In a conversation with Wired, Dick Brouwer, Director of Engineering at WhatsApp, revealed that WhatsApp is considering introducing cross-platform use. This could mean that you will be able to send messages to other apps like iMessage, Telegram, Google Messages, Signal, etc.

Over the past two years, WhatsApp has been working on a way for different messaging apps to connect to its service, allowing users to chat across apps without compromising its end-to-end encryption, crucial for protecting privacy and message security. This is a big step forward for the Meta-owned app, as it's the first time it's opened like this, and it could bring more competition.

A decision taken more out of necessity than voluntary action?

However, this is not a complete change decided by WhatsApp alone. In September last year, EU lawmakers labeled WhatsApp's parent company Meta, along with Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Google and TikTok, important controlling companies under the sweeping markets law digital.

They gave the guards six months to open their closed systems to others. With just a few weeks to go before this deadline, companies are starting to comply. For example, Apple has already announced significant changes to its App Store, iOS and Safari. Now it's WhatsApp's turn to share details on how it could collaborate with other apps. Brouwer, who has experience with deploying Meta encryption for its Messenger app, said:

There is a real tension between providing a simple way to offer this interoperability to third parties while maintaining the privacy, security and integrity of WhatsApp. I think we're pretty happy with where we landed.

The move toward interoperability will begin by allowing users to directly send text messages, images, voice messages, videos and files to each other. Essentially, this means you can chat with people on WhatsApp using other apps like iMessage, Telegram, Google Messages or Signal, and vice versa as well.

But here's the catch: It all depends on whether other companies come on board. Concerns remain about how WhatsApp will maintain message security and encryption when it begins working with other services.

As Wired reports, WhatsApp prefers that the messaging services it connects to use the same signal protocol to encrypt messages. However, Meta is open to apps using different encryption protocols, provided those companies can demonstrate that they meet the security standards outlined in WhatsApp's guidelines. Before connecting to WhatsApp, third-party services will need to sign a contract with Meta.

We will have to wait until March to have more details on exactly how the plan will work. At present, it is still unclear whether these changes will only apply to the EU or whether they will be rolled out globally.