The effects of the European Digital Markets Act (DMA) are still being felt in the tech sector. The new rules were introduced to improve competition and innovation by limiting the privileges of the biggest tech companies such as Google, Microsoft, Apple and Meta. As a result, WhatsApp will have to change and adapt to the new law very soon.
The good news is that the changes will not affect most functions that the WhatsApp application has, such as end-to-end encryption or the creation of private groups with the participants we want. The DMA refers more to the platform itself and how open or closed it is; in other words, the EU wants to prevent WhatsApp from becoming a closed monopoly.
To avoid this, Meta must open WhatsApp and allow interoperability with other applications; for example, that a friend can send us a message with his favorite appand we receive it on WhatsApp, and vice versa. It’s much more complicated than it seems, and that’s why, in recent months, Meta has been working with the creators of other applications to define how this connection will be established.
Today, Meta explained how WhatsApp and Messenger will change to favor connection with other applications, which they will appear as “third-party discussions” in the interface. For starters, Meta has addressed the issue of ease of use, with new notifications that will inform users about these “third-party chats,” as well as a new screen that will explain how it works and allow users to enable or disable it.
Whenever a new messaging app is available to connect to WhatsApp, we will receive a notification; this way we will know that we can send a message to friends who have that app, for example.
Initially, it was unclear whether third-party chats would be integrated into WhatsApp chats; this could be confusing for many users, while others may not care as long as they can talk to their contacts regardless of the app they are using.
For this reason, Meta announced that it would offer the possibility of place all third-party discussions in a separate folder from WhatsApp chats; Or we can bring up third-party chats combined with the rest of the chats we have opened.
Finally, Meta boasts of going beyond what is required by European law, which only requires basic functions such as text or emojis. Third-party chats on WhatsApp will be able to use advanced features, such as reactions, direct replies, an indicator that we are writing and a marker indicating that the message has been read. In addition, from 2027, the possibility of creating groups with third-party chats will be added, and make video and audio calls with other apps.
