WhatsApp is working to roll out a new feature that could change it drastically by allowing its users to chat with other encrypted messaging apps.
Lawmakers in the European Union last September designated Meta, WhatsApp's parent company, as what it calls a gatekeeper company. It required the tech giant to open up its services to others after six months, which is March this year.
WhatsApp Will Soon Allow Cross-App Messaging
The development is part of the same Digital Markets Act which will force Apple to open up the iPhone to users in the EU. However, it looks like WhatsApp's changes will apply to those even outside of Europe as well.
The messaging app has only partly been cajoled into the move, having been working on opening things up for roughly two years. The new system is also meant to overcome the annoying problem of users having trouble remembering if their messages came via iMessage, WhatsApp, or Messenger.
The change in WhatsApp will mean that other messaging apps can attach themselves to Meta's model to allow users to chat across apps without denigrating the end-to-end encryption that is already in place, as per Forbes.
This interoperability will begin with text messages, images, voice messages, videos, and file transfer. Calls and group chats will join the new feature at a later date, perhaps several years in the future.
An engineering director at WhatsApp, Dick Brouwer, reportedly pointed out that a core requirement of the new feature is that users opt in. He explained that a user can choose whether or not they want to participate in being open to exchanging messages with third parties. He argued that this is important because it could be a big source of spam and scams.
If users do decide to opt-in to the new feature, they will see messages from other apps in a separate section that will appear at the top of the inbox. Brouwer said that this is because "these networks are very different."
Preserving Privacy, Security, and Integrity
Brouwer added that there is a real tension between offering an easy way to offer this sort of interoperability to third parties while also preserving WhatsApp's privacy, security, and integrity. He said that they are pretty happy with the compromise that they have come up with, according to Wired.
The general idea of messaging interoperability is to allow users to avoid having to know what messaging apps their friends and family members use with them. While WhatsApp is moving forward with its efforts, for apps with millions or billions of users, making it a reality is not necessarily straightforward.
On top of WhatsApp's soon-to-come new feature, Meta is also working to add support for other chat apps to Messenger. Initially, these would focus on one-on-one chats where people can send text, audio, video, images, and files across apps.
Companies that wish to become interoperable with Meta's system will have to sign a new agreement, the details of which have not yet been made public.
Open-source messaging protocol Matrix's founder, Matthew Hodgson, noted that it has worked with WhatsApp on an "experimental" basis to make the protocol work with end-to-end encryption intact, said TechCrunch.
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