WhatsApp opens its doors and will allow messages from other apps like Signal to appear
Nowadays, communication through the applications you have on your mobile has become a total necessity. From iMessage, Telegram to WhatsApp and Signal, these apps keep everyone connected to the world.
However, each of them works independently, which complicates communication between themThat is, each person can use a specific one, Signal, for example, and can talk to another person who uses a different one like WhatsApp.
Taking precisely this as a basis, WhatsApp has decided to change everything by allowing interoperability with other messaging applications.
After two years of development, the company wants to simplify 21st century communication, allowing users to send messages, share files and make calls from different applications, eliminating the need to use one or the other. Group calls and chats are said to come years later.
The European Union DMA has played a key role in this opening of WhatsApp
However, this change has not been driven solely by WhatsApp’s internal decisions. Regulatory pressure, especially in Europe, has played an important role in this evolution.
The designation of Meta, the parent company of WhatsApp, as one of the gatekeepers under the European Union Digital Markets Law has played a great role for the company to open its ecosystem, just as happened with apple and the App Store.
Ultimately, this initiative seeks to create a more open and equitable environment for users, where they have the freedom to choose the messaging application, in this case, that best suits their needs without being limited by the restrictions of having to use a other.
As WhatsApp gradually prepares to implement interoperability, which, at the moment, it is unknown when it will happen – although foreseeably this very 2024 -, Be careful because it seems that it is not going to be an easy task..
As explained in The Wired, you are going to face some technical and logistical problems. In the end, this process of integrating different messaging platforms entails the need to guarantee, first, the security and privacy of messages, and, secondly, compatibility between systems that use different protocols and standards.
“There is a real tension between offering an easy way to offer this interoperability to third parties while preserving the privacy, security and integrity of WhatsApp,” explains Dick Brouwer, director of engineering at WhatsApp. “I think we’re pretty happy with where we’ve landed,” he adds.
WhatsApp is already working to overcome these approaching obstacles with the aim of submitting to EU laws and, in the end, creating a complete and secure user experience, while maintaining the end-to-end encryption and data privacy protection that sets this app apart.
“We believe the best way to deliver this approach is through a solution based on WhatsApp’s existing client-server architecture,” says Brouwer, adding that he has been working with other companies on the plans.
“This effectively means that the approach we are trying to take is for WhatsApp to document our client-server protocol and allow third-party clients to connect directly to our infrastructure and exchange messages with WhatsApp clients,” he concludes.
At the moment it is unknown if there is any company that is willing to connect its services to WhatsApp. Some, such as Telegram, Viber and Signal, are refraining from responding for the moment.
