According to engadget, Meta has announced that BirdyChat and Haiket will be the first third-party messaging services to achieve interoperability with WhatsApp in the European Union. The company has been working on this capability since 2023 following the Digital Markets Act requirements and conducted small-scale tests over recent months. Users will soon be able to exchange messages, images, voice messages, videos, and files between these platforms across both Android and iOS devices. The integration will appear as an opt-in feature in WhatsApp’s Settings tab over the coming months, with users having full control to enable or disable it at any time. All partner services must maintain WhatsApp’s same level of end-to-end encryption under DMA rules, though group chats with users from different platforms won’t be available at launch.
How interoperability actually works
Here’s the thing about cross-platform messaging – it’s way more complicated than it sounds. Basically, WhatsApp isn’t just opening its doors and letting anyone connect. They’ve built a specific protocol that other services need to implement, and BirdyChat and Haiket are the first to jump through all the technical hoops. The fact that they’ve been testing this for months tells you everything – interoperability between encrypted systems is notoriously difficult to get right.
And about that encryption requirement? That’s actually the most interesting part. The DMA specifically mandates that any interoperability can’t compromise security standards. So Meta can’t just say “sure, connect to our servers” without ensuring the other services can handle proper end-to-end encryption. That’s probably why we’re only seeing two partners at launch – getting the security right is non-negotiable.
The user experience reality
Now, let’s talk about what this actually means for users. You’ll get a notification in Settings when it’s available, and you have to consciously opt-in. That’s smart – most people won’t even notice the change unless they’re specifically looking for it. But here’s my question: how many people actually want to message across different apps? I mean, we’ve all been trained to use different apps for different groups of people.
The opt-out anytime feature is crucial too. Because let’s be honest – if this creates any friction or weirdness in the messaging experience, people will just turn it off. Meta knows that WhatsApp’s reliability is their golden goose, and they can’t afford to mess that up just to comply with regulations.
The bigger picture
So why only these two relatively unknown services? Well, the DMA requires Meta to open up to any qualified messenger that wants to connect. But the technical bar is high, and smaller players might struggle with the implementation costs. It’s kind of ironic – a regulation meant to help smaller competitors might actually favor those with enough engineering resources to meet WhatsApp’s technical requirements.
And that group chat limitation? That’s going to be the real test. Once they figure out cross-platform group messaging, that’s when things get really interesting. But for now, we’re looking at one-on-one conversations between different services. Still, it’s a start – and honestly, more progress than I expected this soon.
