Meta has announced that BirdyChat and HiChat are the first third-party messaging services that will have interoperability with WhatsApp in the EU. The company is working on enabling third-party chat from 2023 after the bloc’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) rules come into force. To make sure WhatsApp works with BirdieChat and HiChat, it apparently conducted small-scale tests over the past few months, and it will launch integration with the services across Europe “soon.”
Users will be able to send messages, pictures, voice messages, videos and files between messaging services, whether they are on Android or iOS. For those wondering, any messaging service from the Meta team will require the same level of end-to-end encryption as WhatsApp under DMA rules. When the BirdieChat and HiChat integration becomes available in the coming months, users will see a notification in their Settings tab on WhatsApp telling them how they can opt-in to third-party chat. They can choose not to enable this feature at all or turn it off whenever they want.
When Meta released details on how WhatsApp will work with other messengers, the company said users will be able to create group chats with their friends on their partner apps. However, this feature will not be available at launch, and will come later when Meta’s partners are ready to support the capability. Meta also said it will continue to expand WhatsApp interoperability with more apps, as it is required to do under the DMA.