March was shaping up to be a great month. New developments in European regulations and their watchdogs have forced giants such as Microsoft, Apple or Meta to make moves. Apple had to open up to third-party apps, and Meta had to make its apps interoperable. What does the second mean? This means, at least on a technical level, that WhatsApp is similar to Telegram, Signal, etc. It should allow us to receive messages from other applications such as.

As is often the case, theory is quite different from reality. In fact, WhatsApp already allows other apps to connect to it, at least in one of its beta versions. Through a special section we can access messages received via other applications. Problem? Now, These other apps are neither there nor expected.

WhatsApp is still alone

Meta is working on updating WhatsApp to make it interoperable with other applications. The stable version of the application does not yet show functions related to this, but we are aware that there are beta versions where the function is active.

In principle, everything will be as simple as activating the “third-party chats” option, but with the caveat that the applications that send us messages do not need to have the same end-to-end encryption. Likewise, they warn that this is a major gateway to SPAM, as any messaging service can send us messages. Enable the option and these chats will appear in a different tray than the general tray.

The key to interoperability? Compatible apps: There isn’t even one today. Not Signal, not Google Messages, not Telegram. None of the most popular messaging apps can send messages to WhatsApp users.

Although this is technically possible, agreements will need to be made with Meta for the most popular applications to communicate with each other. An act that raises serious doubts. It is questionable, to say the least, that apps aimed at retaining WhatsApp users allow them to send messages to their main rivals.

Image | Xataka