In the latest beta of WhatsApp on iPhone, the application introduces one of the biggest changes in its history. There is indeed a new section dedicated to “third-party conversations”, which refer to messages sent from other messaging applications. In other words, WhatsApp is slowly starting to bend to the DMA.
Since 2022, WhatsApp has been preparing a small revolution in the world of messaging applications. That year, the European Union greatly shook up the sector by imposing interoperability on the largest players, via its Digital Market Act. In other words, WhatsApp, iMessage and other messaging services designated as “gatekeeper” will eventually have to allow their users to send messages between applications.
Since then, WhatsApp has been forced to work on the subject. In September 2023, Android smartphones were the first to be entitled to a new section in the conversations tab, entitled “third-party conversations”. This brings together, as its name suggests, all messages received from messaging other than WhatsApp. As WABetaInfo reports, it is now the turn of iPhones to receive this new section, in the latest beta 24.2.10.72 of the application.
WhatsApp tests message interoperability on iPhone
In fact, it is simply a matter of deploying on iPhone the functionality that was tested on Android last school year. Nothing new under the sun therefore, except the confirmation that WhatsApp continues to work on the interoperability of its messaging. The firm doesn’t really have a choice: considered a gatekeeper, it will sooner or later have to comply with the new DMA restrictions.
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Remember that this functionality can be activated and deactivated as desired by the user, at the request of the European Union. However, it is difficult to imagine a situation where the latter would want to do without this functionality, which will allow a large part of their conversations to be grouped together in a single application. Additionally, end-to-end encryption will need to be maintained on these conversations, which is why the feature is taking time to arrive.
Source: WABetaInfo