London, September 7, 2024 – Meta Platforms, Inc. announced a significant update to its messaging applications, WhatsApp and Messenger, as the company aims to comply with the Digital Markets Act (DMA), a European legislation designed to foster competition in the digital market.
In a recent report released by Meta, the company outlined its plans to integrate with third-party messaging services and applications, a requirement under the DMA that applies to its messaging apps.
As stated in a blog post by Meta, the DMA necessitates the company to provide an option to connect with interoperable third-party messaging services and applications within WhatsApp and Messenger. Meta is working on establishing notification features in the apps to inform users about these third-party integrations and alert them when new compatible third-party messaging applications are launched.
The company also plans to introduce a welcome interface in WhatsApp and Messenger, allowing users to learn more about third-party messaging and enable it. During this process, users can set up specific folders for third-party information or choose to merge their inboxes.
By 2025, Meta will launch third-party chat group functionality in WhatsApp and Messenger, and by 2027, voice and video call features will be introduced based on the DMA.
In a future, yet unspecified, timeframe, Meta will bring rich information features for third-party messaging, such as reactions, direct replies, typing indicators, and read receipts.
We will continue to work with third-party messaging services to provide the safest and best experience, Meta wrote in the post. Users will start seeing third-party chat options when third-party messaging services establish, test, and launch the necessary technology to make the feature a positive and secure user experience.
It is unclear whether major messaging operators like Viber and Telegram will support these interoperability features, as the article reports. WhatsApp requires end-to-end encryption to achieve interoperability, which may pose a technical challenge. Additionally, Meta requires companies to sign agreements before integrating with any of its systems, but the details of the agreements have not been disclosed.
Matthew Hodgson, the founder of the open-source information protocol Matrix, pointed out in a speech this year that Matrix will collaborate with WhatsApp on end-to-end encryption on an experimental basis.
While Meta is trying to fulfill its obligations under the DMA’s information-related provisions, the company has faced criticism for allegedly violating other aspects of the legislation. This summer, the European Commission stated that Meta’s pay or agree advertising model, which allows Facebook and Instagram users in the EU to choose between a paid, ad-free experience or a free, ad-supported version, does not comply with the DMA’s regulations.
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