In an effort to comply with the European Union’s (EU) Digital Markets Act (DMA), Meta Platforms will be allowing support for third-party messaging for WhatsApp users in Europe.
The company revealed emerging European messaging players BirdyChat and Haiket will be the first to plug into WhatsApp under the new regulatory framework, which aims to curb the market dominance of big tech players.
WhatsApp’s third-party chats follow “successful small scale tests” and will go live in the coming months on iOS and Android devices across Europe. Users in the region will see an opt-in prompt in the app’s settings menu. If enabled, they will be able to share messages, images, voice notes, videos and files with users on the two partner apps, with group chat support slated to follow.
Meta stressed the rollout follows a “privacy first approach”, explaining that the third-party messaging platforms “must use the same level of end-to-end encryption as WhatsApp” and that the feature can be switched off at any time.
The Facebook-owner said the update reflects “more than three years” of work with European messaging services and the European Commission (EC) to develop a compliant technical framework without compromising user protections.
Meta hailed the launch as a “significant milestone” in meeting DMA obligations and said it expects to expand interoperability to more partners over time.
In April, the EC fined Meta €200 million for breaching provisions of the DMA related to its consent or pay advertising model.
Source: Mobile World Live
Image Credit: WhatsApp
