WhatsApp Will Soon Work With Other Encrypted Messaging Apps, Score A Win For Privacy
The Digital Markets Act gave the six “gatekeepers” six months to open its doors to other companies back in September of last year. Now, just ahead of that deadline, WhatsApp is giving details about how it plans on meeting those requirements. These are the same rules that have caused Apple to open its iPhone to App Store alternatives in Europe.
“There’s a real tension between offering an easy way to offer this interoperability to third parties whilst at the same time preserving the WhatsApp privacy, security, and integrity bar,” explained Dick Brouwer, and engineering director at WhatsApp. “I think we’re pretty happy with where we’ve landed.”
Brouwer went on to add in his interview with Wired that the “early thinking” is to place a separate inbox, being the networks are “very different.” The reason for doing so boils down to not being able to deliver the same “level of privacy and security.” He also noted that if WhatsApp were to add SMS, it would need a separate inbox as well.
Another aspect that will need to be overcome is that third parties will need to sign an agreement to follow certain terms with Meta in order to be interoperable with WhatsApp and Messenger apps. It is not known what exactly an agreement of this nature would include, but it could be more than some third parties are willing to agree to, with Apple being an obvious front runner for not playing well with others.
Brouwer did add that Meta could be open to other chat services using alternative encryption protocols, but they would need to meet the same rigorous standards of security as WhatsApp.
