According to Meta, BirdyChat and Haiket will be the first messaging services to support interoperability with WhatsApp, in a move aimed at boosting competition between large and emerging companies, even those not widely known.
WhatsApp users in Europe will begin to see a notification within the app’s settings explaining how to enable chatting with external applications (third-party applications). This feature will only be available on iOS and Android phones, and will not be supported by the desktop version, web version, or tablet version at this time.
Meta confirms that any external application must adhere to the same encryption standards used in WhatsApp, clarifying that it cannot see the encrypted messages. Supported message types include text, images, videos, voice messages, and files, noting that this feature will be limited to accounts registered with phone numbers within countries subject to the Digital Markets Act (DMA) in Europe.
Last September, Meta showcased the initial form of the integration mechanism between WhatsApp and Messenger, where users will be able to choose to receive third-party messages in a separate folder or merge them into the main inbox. The company will alert users when a new external service compatible with WhatsApp becomes available.
While Meta affirmed maintaining encryption, it warned that “third-party applications may handle user data differently” than its usual policies.
