WhatsApp will soon be able to chat with other messengers – but they don’t want to

New EU requirement
Why Whatsapp is now learning to chat with other messengers – and some of them block it

There is hardly any way around WhatsApp in Germany. But that will soon change: WhatsApp will soon also be able to be contacted by other apps. Now there is a first preview.

A quick message to friends, the parent chat for the sports club or to make an appointment at the hairdresser: Messenger like For many people, WhatsApp is an integral part of everyday life. But even though almost everyone uses WhatsApp, not every contact can be reached via the same messenger. Now this hurdle should finally fall.

For two years, the messenger has been working on the option to integrate all other messengers into its own app. However, not entirely voluntarily: operator Meta is implementing an EU requirement. They had forced Whatsapp and Facebook’s Messenger to open up to other chat apps in order to encourage competition between operators and counteract monopolies. Whatsapp has now revealed to “Wired” what this should look like.

WhatsApp opens up to third-party chats

The messages from other apps should therefore arrive in a separate area that is displayed above the classic WhatsApp chats. “We wanted to introduce our own mailbox for this,” explains Whatsapp developer Dick Brouwer to “Wired”. Once opened, the chats only differ from WhatsApp’s own details.

This primarily concerns the supported functions: Initially, the messenger will support text and voice messages, as well as the sending of images, videos and files. This corresponds to the EU requirement. Voice and video calls or the sending of SMS are not yet part of the requirement and, according to Whatsapp, have not yet been planned.

The biggest challenge is encryption: Because every messenger uses different technologies, the messages cannot be easily received and made readable. Whatsapp has therefore developed a protocol with which other messengers can “connect” to Whatsapp and use the same encryption. To do this, however, the operators must enter into a contract with Meta. Further details will follow in March, then the function should also reach users.

Market power Whatsapp

The requirement to open the two meta-messengers is part of the EU’s larger digital initiative, the Digital Markets Act (DMA). This is intended to limit the formation of monopolies in the digital sector and give competitors a chance. In this context, the EU identified the six global corporations with the greatest market power and assessed their products according to their monopoly potential in Europe.

The fact that only Whatsapp and Facebook’s Messenger have been given interoperability among chat apps is due to their extremely wide distribution: Whatsapp and Facebook Messenger are used by over three billion people worldwide, and only WeChat, which is popular in China, can only begin to keep up. In Europe, WhatsApp alone is installed on almost 80 percent of smartphones. This even beats pre-installed apps: Unlike the browsers Chrome (Google’s Android) and Safari (Apple’s iOS), the EU has not defined the messengers pre-installed on smartphones as gatekeepers – because in Europe they simply do not match the usage figures of meta-messengers approach.

Who is participating?

In practice, it will be interesting to see how many messengers will actually support the function – and whether customers will actually use it. Because: Unlike Meta, the other messenger operators are not obliged to participate. The integration of other chat apps should also be voluntary for customers and must be consciously activated.

Competitors such as Signal and Threema have already expressed skepticism about Meta’s plans. Martin Blatter, one of the co-founders of the Swiss messenger Threema, had already criticized the mere approach of the interfaces now offered by Whatsapp. They would enable Whatsapp, for example, to evaluate chat metadata. “From our perspective, protecting the privacy of users is the most important thing,” he told “Heise”. It wouldn’t be financially interesting for the messenger either: if you want to reach Threema users, you have to buy the messenger beforehand. But if users could be reached via WhatsApp, this hurdle would be eliminated – and thus the messenger’s only source of income.

For Meta, the other providers’ refusal is not a problem: the EU requirement only stipulates that Whatsapp and Facebook Messenger must allow other apps. Whether they then take part is not Meta’s responsibility.

Sources:Wired, Details about the EU requirement, Statista, Sinch Engage