(Web Desk) - Meta announced its strategy to align with the European Union's Digital Markets Act (DMA), focusing on its messaging platforms, Messenger and WhatsApp.
The update reveals new features aimed at enhancing interoperability with third-party messaging services, as mandated by the DMA.
Starting soon, Meta will introduce an onboarding flow in WhatsApp and Messenger that will educate users about third-party chat options and allow them to enable these features.
Users will have the choice to either create a dedicated folder for third-party messages or merge them into a combined inbox.
The company detailed its plan in a blog post, stating that the DMA requires Meta to facilitate connections with other messaging apps.
To meet this requirement, Meta will integrate notifications into WhatsApp and Messenger to alert users about third-party integrations and inform them when new compatible apps become available.
Meta's compliance timeline includes several milestones, by 2025, group chat functionality for third-party communications will be introduced, followed by voice and video calling capabilities in 2027.
Meta intends to incorporate "rich messaging" features such as message reactions, direct replies, typing indicators, and read receipts into third-party chats, although a specific rollout date for these features has not been provided.
However, the implementation of these features may face challenges. It remains uncertain whether major messaging platforms like Viber and Telegram will support Meta's interoperability efforts.
Moreover, WhatsApp’s end-to-end encryption requirements for interoperability could pose technical difficulties. Meta also requires third-party companies to sign an agreement to integrate with its systems, details of which were disclosed only recently.