WhatsApp Rolls Out Messaging Interoperability for Europeans

Meta has started allowing third-party messengers to interoperate with WhatsApp in compliance with the European Digital Markets Act (DMA).

The law requires Meta to allow third-party messengers that choose to interoperate with WhatsApp the ability to do so. So called "third-party chats" will retain WhatsApp's end-to-end encryption (E2EE), allowing users of third-party messaging apps to retain the "same level of E2EE as WhatsApp."

The change is apparently being rolled out gradually and will be opt-in at first.

The first third-party messaging apps to support the new interoperability are BirdyChat and Haiket.

Meta’s partnerships with BirdyChat and Haiket is a result of more than three years of work with European messaging services and the European Commission to build a solution to third-party chats that meets the requirements of the DMA, while preserving privacy and security for users as much as possible.

It's unclear whether the feature will eventually be rolled out globally or just stay within the EU.

You can read a previous blog post by Meta on how they worked with the commission to design a new secure protocol based on their previous work for the new feature and the challenges therein. It's quite an interesting read.