The interoperability changes are required under the European Union's Digital Markets Act.
  • WhatsApp will be required to make its platform interoperable under the European Union’s Digital Markets Act.
  • In an interview with Wired, an engineering director for WhatsApp described how support for third-party messages could work.
  • The feature is currently in testing, and plans will be announced in March. WhatsApp will have “several months” after that to roll out the new feature.

“One of the core requirements here, and this is really important, is for users for this to be opt-in,” Brouwer explained. “I can choose whether or not I want to participate in being open to exchanging messages with third parties. This is important, because it could be a big source of spam and scams.”

As we’ve seen in developer WhatsApp versions in the past, Brouwer confirms that third-party messages will show up in a separate part of the app from the main inbox. The third-party chat inbox is the name that has been thrown around, but we don’t know what WhatsApp will call it.