this post was submitted on 12 Sep 2023
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Whatsapp has begun working on support for third party chats (Telegram/Signal) (wabetainfo.com)
submitted 1 year ago by iturnedintoanewt@lemm.ee to c/technology@lemmy.world
23 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

The European Union has recently reached an agreement on a significant competition reform known as the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which will impose strict rules on large tech companies that will have to offer users the ability to communicate with each other using different apps. WhatsApp is one of the companies that will be required to comply with the new regulations outlined in the European Union’s Digital Markets Act. This is because WhatsApp is considered a gatekeeper service since it’s a large tech platform with a substantial user base and falls within the criteria set by the DMA. With the latest WhatsApp beta for Android 2.23.19.8 update, which is available on the Google Play Store, we discovered that WhatsApp is working on complying with the new regulations:

As you can see in this screenshot, WhatsApp is working on a new section dedicated to the new regulations. Since it is still in development, this section is still not ready, it appears empty and it’s not accessible to users, but its title confirms to us that they are now working on it. WhatsApp has a 6-month period to align the app with the new European regulations to provide its interoperability service in the European Union. At the moment, it remains unclear whether this feature will also eventually extend to countries beyond the European Union.

Interoperability will allow other people to contact users on WhatsApp even if they don’t have a WhatsApp account. For example, someone from the Signal app could send a message to a WhatsApp user, even without a WhatsApp account. While this broader network can definitely enhance communication with those people who use different messaging apps and assist those small apps in competing within the messaging app industry, we acknowledge that this approach may also raise important considerations about end-to-end encryption when receiving a message from users who don’t use WhatsApp. In this context, as this feature is still in its early stages of development, detailed technical information about this process on WhatsApp as a gatekeeper is currently very limited, but we can confirm that end-to-end encryption will have to be preserved in interoperable messaging systems. In addition, as mentioned in Article 7 of the regulations, it appears that users may have the option to opt out when it will be available in the future.

Third-party chat support is under development and it will be available in a future update of the app. As always, we will share a new article when we have further information regarding this feature.

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[–] Virkkunen@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Up to a month ago, people were irritated and would constantly complain about having to use "too many chat apps" to talk with people. The EU then demands messaging apps to be interoperable, now people are irritated and will constantly complain that they do not want to send messages to X service or participate in Y service group chats

It's comical

[–] XTornado@lemmy.ml -1 points 1 year ago

they do not want to send messages to X service

I feel like most would understand it, Xitter has gone downhill.

Sorry I found it too funny that we cannot use the letter X as example in some situations as it could be confusing 😅.

[–] EdherJr@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Will they do this everywhere, or only in the European Union?

[–] Albinjose3125@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago

Everywhere.

[–] qyron@sopuli.xyz 1 points 1 year ago

As a Signal user this will be very much welcome. I abandoned FB and its messenger to cut down on aplications on my phone and giving a fat f-u to that cancer. Then I had to jump on Discord to keep in contact with friends but I just don't like it. If I can Signal all my contacts regardless the bag of bricks they're using, it will be a win.

[–] pixelvolt@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

People who use Telegram and Signal wants to avoid Facebook at all cost and Zuck comes up with shit.

[–] bamboo@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

How about starting with the company who says you have to buy their phone to use their messenger. If Apple isn't eventually considered a gatekeeper, then this is a joke.

[–] ninjaturtle@lemmy.ninja 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

iMessage isn't as big in Europe as it is in the US. They just looked at it and declared it's too small to be seen as a gatekeeper, in that market.

[–] XioR112@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

No, EU lunched 5 months investigation to decide whether iMessage is big enough.

[–] 10EXP@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

^^ To add: It wasn’t EU that declared it too small. It was to be on the list until Apple disputed iMessage’s position as a gatekeeper, claiming it was too small. EU will now investigate. Same with Bing and Microsoft Edge.

[–] mishimaenjoyer@kbin.social -1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

iMessages automatically becomes a sms app with every other phone, so everyone with a phone capable of sending and reiciving text is able to contact you. No gatekeeping at all.

[–] 10EXP@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The app itself is referred to as Messages.

The intention of the EU is clearly to have iMessage, the part that handles instant messaging over WiFi, be compatible with other such apps, like WhatsApp. I am not a lawyer, such a loophole may very well exist, but it is frankly foolish to believe EU will back down if WhatsApp for example adds SMS support and calls it a day. I expect the EU to see their intention through.

[–] mishimaenjoyer@kbin.social -1 points 1 year ago

this whole thing is peak boomer bureaucracy. they just want a one stop shop for data collection and backdoors, not understanding the technology behind it. i don't use whatsapp (even tho is makes me some kind of digital pariah in germanic europe) because i don't want my data processed by meta. if my signal is now "forced" into being readable - and collectable - by whatsapp, my data end up with meta. the european union is doing big tech a favour by forcing smaller messengers to be "compatible" with major ones.

imessage/messages would even be worse because it's not just the iphone's default messenger, but also deeply integrated into ipados, watchos and macos, opening those platforms, too. if all of this would just be an initiative for more openess, the eu could just force them all to integrate the new sms standard google is begging apple to implement for quite some time.

look behind the curtain.

[–] Ethanol@pawb.social 0 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Different apps being able to communicate sounds similar to the fediverse! Would be nice if there was a common protocol/library every messenger would use and clients would only need to implement it.

[–] MSids@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 1 year ago

I agree with the other commenter that it sounds a bit like the Fediverse. It's interesting to think about. I think part of what draws people to any messaging platform is continuity with the other services on the platform. The actual messaging experience can be duplicated or exceeded by anyone, like how RCS has made the humble text message more powerful and compatible than anyone at Apple could comprehend.

With this idea, would any messaging platform that became ultra successful be then required to allow other platforms to message their users? Which platforms are allowed? How is spam managed? What about special privacy features like what's built in to Signal or Telegram? How do the platforms manage linking to content embedded in other parts of the platform (think Instagram posts/reels/messenger).

There are a lot of difficult issues to work out.

[–] Paradox@lemdro.id 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Some sort of extensible message protocol?

[–] KyuubiNoKitsune@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 1 year ago

Yes! And we'll name it eXtensible Message Protocol Protocol 😁

[–] mishimaenjoyer@kbin.social -1 points 1 year ago

misleading title. it's not "whatsapp working on third party chats", it's actually "meta is working on syphoning data off third party messenger software because european apperatschiks are high on lobbyist money".