WhatsApp to open up to other messaging services

In a move triggered by EU law, Ireland’s biggest messaging service will soon be able to receive and send messages to other services, possibly including Apple’s iMessage or privacy apps like Signal, as well as its own sister service, Messenger.

It could see messaging services become like email services, able to work with each other rather than being closed mini-networks.

It’s the biggest shakeup in how WhatsApp operates in years.

However, it won’t work with SMS text messages, as that isn’t covered by the EU’s Digital Markets Act, which has pushed Meta into modifying WhatsApp and Messenger.

A spokesperson for the company said that “interoperability” has been in preparation for the last two years and will focus on issues such as security and privacy, as well as what features can be used. Text, images and videos are expected to be included in the interoperability systems, but group chats and calls between messaging services are unlikely to be in the first wave.

Under the EU’s Digital Markets Act, messaging “gatekeepers” such as Meta (WhatsApp, Messenger) are required to grant limited access to their messaging systems to others — smaller, or newer messaging firms — who want to allow their users interact with users of the bigger services.

While Apple (iMessage) was initially named as a gatekeeper, this week the company won a reprieve from being included in the first wave of gatekeepers as it demonstrated that it does not have over 45m active monthly users across the EU. However, the European Commission said that it would be monitoring Apple’s figures and that iMessage might be reclassified as a gatekeeper at a future date.

WhatsApp has begun informing users of what personal data will be involved when its interoperability with other services begins. It did not put any date on when it expects the first interoperable messages are sent, or which services it will initially work with.

WhatsApp also announced that it was lowering its minimum age from 16 to 13, in line with most social media apps. That move is not expected to make much difference to usage among young teens, almost all of whom have WhatsApp accounts already installed on their phones, according to the most recent nationwide school survey from CyberSafeKids.

Separately, Irish Facebook and Instagram users are also being asked by the company to “confirm” their accounts for the purposes of sharing information between them. The move is being introduced to comply with the requirements of EU law.

Opting out means that Instagram and Facebook accounts would remain separate from each other for the purposes of content and ‘friend’ preferences.