Meta begins to do his homework to face a change in legislation.
For years, the European Union has become the scourge of big technology companies in the world, among which we can name Google, Microsoft, Apple and, in this case, Mark Zuckerberg’s company. The highest European body wants Meta, as well as many other companies, to get on track and to do so they use the tools at their disposal to promote interoperability of the digital services. Now, WhatsApp seems to prepare the ground for it.
Meta will update WhatsApp to comply with EU guidelines
According to the information published in the WABetaInfo websitebeta version 2.23.19.8 of WhatsApp for Android includes a new section called ‘Third party chats’, although it seems that it is not yet available to be used. However, this could be the first clue that invites us to think that Meta intends to comply with the Digital Markets Law as soon as possible.
📝 WhatsApp beta for Android 2.23.19.8: what’s new?
WhatsApp is working on complying with new EU regulations by developing support for chat interoperability, and it will be available in a future update of the app! pic.twitter.com/Jpd9Leh2Ki
— WABetaInfo (@WABetaInfo) September 10, 2023
In fact, this new beta version of the application used by billions of users comes days after the EU included Meta among the organizations called access gatekeepersas you can read in the statement published on its website.
This name, in case it seems strange to you, refers to those companies with great power in their respective markets and with the ability to abuse their dominant position to limit the rights of citizens. In the case of Meta, someone may not want to use WhatsApp, but since friends and family use this app, if you want to stay in touch with them, you should use it. This would stop happening if the famous interoperabilitywhich would allow send and receive messages through different applications.
This Digital Markets Law will force WhatsApp to allow their users can interact with competing messaging appsas could be the case with Telegram or iMessage before March 2024so the movement detected in the new beta seems to respond to this European regulation that is upsetting the giants of the sector.
Users, therefore, will no longer have to choose the application with which to communicate with friends and family, but one that offers most interesting features, on WhatsApp it could be communities for example, to be able to continue staying in touch through your mobile devices. For now, we don’t have more details of what the interaction with other applications will be like, but in the coming months we are convinced that we will begin to know many more details.