Meta Plans to Allow Third-party Apps Call WhatsApp and Messenger Users by 2027
9 months ago 2 min read
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Meta issued an update on Friday on how it intends to comply with the Digital Markets Act (DMA), a European law aimed at promoting competition in digital marketplaces that affects the company’s messaging programs, Messenger and WhatsApp.
In a blog post, Meta stated that it was working on a technical solution that prioritised user privacy and security, and also demonstrated how third-party chats would appear on WhatsApp and Messenger.
Newsng gathered that the ability to make audio and video calls via WhatsApp and Messenger via compatible third-party apps, albeit this would only become available in 2027, if at all.
According to the DMA, Meta plans to provide the ability to create groups by 2025, and voice/video calling by 2027.
Meta said it is adding notifications to WhatsApp and Messenger to advise users about these third-party integrations and notify them when a new suitable third-party messaging service becomes available.
“After six months of building new features, creating a new user experience, and getting feedback from potential partners and other stakeholders, we wanted to share an update on what third-party chats will look like on WhatsApp and Messenger.”, Meta said in its blog post.
Meta will also add “rich messaging” features for third-party chats to WhatsApp and Messenger at an unannounced future date, including reactions, direct replies, typing indicators, and read receipts, according to the company.
“We will keep collaborating with third-party messaging services in order to provide the safest and best experience,” Meta wrote in the post. “Users will start to see the third-party chat option when a third-party messaging service has built, tested and launched the necessary technology to make the feature a positive and secure user experience.”
Meta is seeking to comply with the DMA’s messaging-related rules, but the company has come under fire for allegedly breaking other parts of the legislation.
We earlier reported that the British Competition Commission has announced that it has approved the adjustments that Facebook parent company Meta has suggested to the way it handles advertisement data on its social media networks.
