What to know
- Thanks to the EU’s Digital Markets Act, WhatsApp will soon allow users in the EU to message and receive messages from third-party apps.
- Once available, users will need to enable it from Settings > Account > Third-party chats.
- Users will be able to select which third-party apps they want to integrate with WhatsApp.
WhatsApp’s interoperability feature will soon be available to users across the European Region. With it, users will be able to send and receive messages to other third-party apps, such as Telegram and Signal, without their having to install or switch between platforms.
This has become possibly largely due to EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) which restricts the power of industry ‘gatekeepers’ and forces companies to allow users on different messaging apps communicate with each other.
Up until now, we have only had single screenshot glimpses into how WhatsApp’s interoperability feature will look like for EU users. But now, thanks to TheSpAndroid, we have a complete video to check what the third-party chats feature will offer.
Users will be able to opt into the feature from Settings > Account > Third-party chats > Turn on. Once turned on, you’ll be able to select the third-party apps you want people to message you from. All the chats from these apps will be found under ‘Third party chats’ on WhatsApp’s Chats screen.
During the onboarding process, WhatsApp will inform you of the risks such as the frequency of spam, the different end-to-end encryption used by other apps, and the ability for people you’ve blocked on WhatsApp to reach you. WhatsApp also won’t be able to see your messages in the third-party apps.
Regardless, it’s a feature that WhatsApp should make available worldwide and give users the ability to chat with people on other messaging apps.
