WhatsApp accepts its role as a ‘gatekeeper’ in the EU and launches first beta version where you can integrate external chat services.
After an initial mention of third party chats appeared in an early beta last year, WABetaInfo has now gotten a first impression of the service. In the list of chat messages, a separate group now appears where you can find all external chat messages.
Android users will have to wait a bit longer to test, but a limited group of iPhone app testers already have the feature on board today via TestFlight. The latest version, update 24.2.10.72, includes the external chats.
If the external chat service uses end-to-end encryption, WhatsApp must also comply with that protocol.
The European Commission has designated six gatekeepers under the Digital Markets Act (DMA). These are companies that, according to the EU, are responsible for so-called core platform services. Within messaging platforms, only WhatsApp and Messenger are currently listed as gatekeepers. Apple’s iMessage is still being analyzed to determine whether it should be on the list or not.
A gatekeeper must make its platform available to third parties to guarantee fair competition. When they fail to do so, the commission can impose fines of up to ten percent of global revenue. In case of repeated violations, this can even rise to twenty percent. The list of gatekeepers is not definitive, by the way. There’s a chance that Europe will designate even more companies as gatekeepers in the coming months or years.
Earlier this month, WhatsApp announced that it’s working on an AirDrop feature. You can also now send voice messages in Channels and create polls. Channel administrators are able to share polls in the chat for followers to respond to.