Third-party chats are coming to WhatsApp

You use WhatsApp to communicate with other people on WhatsApp. That’s fine and all, but it’s a shame that you can’t use WhatsApp to communicate with people outside of the platform. However, this is something that the company has been working on to comply with the EU’s regulations. According to a new report, WhatsApp will eventually support third-party chats.

The European Union has been working hard to ensure that large tech companies don’t gatekeep certain technologies that could benefit the masses. Thus, it has been targeting certain companies that own communications platforms, urging them to make them interoperable with others. WhatsApp was on that list, and the company is making appropriate changes to comply with the Digital Markets Act (DMA).

WhatsApp is working on bringing third-party chats

Since the dawn of alternative online-based communications platforms, people have been wanting to streamline them. Nowadays, people have to message others across multiple apps. A person could message a person on Facebook Messenger, and then jump to Instagram, WhatsApp, and Telegram. This is not to mention standard SMS/RCS messaging.

That gets very cumbersome because all these platforms have their own separate apps, security protocols, and features. So, it’s about time that someone makes a change. That change has come in the form of the European Union forcing companies to make their apps talk to each other.

The folks at WABetaInfo discovered a new addition in the latest WhatsApp beta version (version 2.23.19.8). It shows that WhatsApp is currently working on third-party chats. In the screenshot, we see a splash page that will give you the option to opt-in to using third-party chats. With third-party chats enabled, you will be able to use WhatsApp to interact with people on different platforms. So, if you use WhatsApp as your main communication platform, you won’t want to go to different apps to communicate with your friends who use other programs. You will be able to simply message them using one platform.

There are some things to keep in mind, however. Firstly, your third-party checks will be separate from your regular checks. They will live in a separate inbox.

Next, WhatsApp has end-to-end encryption. Other platforms are also required to have it too. However, the end-to-end encryption obfuscating the messages could be different from what WhatsApp uses for its first-party messages. So, there’s always the chance that it won’t be as effective as what WhatsApp uses.

Lastly, third-party chats will display different information than what you see with first-party chats. You will not see profile pictures or account names with third-party chats. This means that it will be easier for scammers to contact you.

At this point, we don’t know when third-party chats will make it to WhatsApp. We are just going to have to wait for the company to finish developing it.