Under the European Union's Digital Markets Act (DMA) bill, app developers are required to open their ecosystem to third-party apps. One of the things they want to do is make chat functionality in one app readable by users of other apps without the first app being installed.
Today, Meta announced that in a few months, WhatsApp will start supporting sending and reading messages from third-party apps. The two third-party apps that will be supported are BirdyChat and Haiket. They can share messages, audio messages, photos, videos and files across all three platforms.
Later, when they receive approval from third parties, support for group chats will also be supported. At this point, Meta says this feature will only be available to users in Europe.
In addition to cross-platform messaging support, the DMA also asked Apple to open up the AirPods, Apple Watch and AirDrop tethering system to third parties last year. Apple rejected this request because it could pose a security risk to users of their devices,
