I’ve been looking for info about this for months, as it was obviously a part of the EU’s anti-gatekeeping legislation from last year, but I couldn’t find any info. Specifically I wanted to know which apps would be able to communicate with WhatsApp - Telegram? Signal? Something else?
And now that there’s an article, it’s behind a paywall…
Specifically I wanted to know which apps would be able to communicate with WhatsApp
WhatsApp will allow any service to communicate with their network. But wether or not any do is entirely up to those other apps. I think there’s very little chance Signal will ever interoperate with anything for example. iMessage surely won’t either.
Technically it shouldn’t be difficult, because almost every chat app these days uses the same protocol (Signal which is an unofficial industry standard and soon to be an official one). The question is how well it fits with their business model. And most companies don’t share their business model.
The other issue is the recipient needs to opt in. You won’t be able to send messages to just anyone… and if spam is an issue then everyone might turn it off.
The bigger question for me is wether or not you will be able to use a third party app to access WhatsApp. As in full access, view all messages, view contacts, create messages, receive push notifications, etc etc. It looks like the DMA might allow a return to software like Adium which is an open source messaging app that used to be able to log into almost any messaging service. These days none of the most popular services are available in the app, so almost nobody uses it.
Adium… now that’s a name I have not heard for a while. Used to have a super nice customized version to chat with friends on various platforms. It was amazing. Thanks for the nostalgia trip!
I’ve been looking for info about this for months, as it was obviously a part of the EU’s anti-gatekeeping legislation from last year, but I couldn’t find any info. Specifically I wanted to know which apps would be able to communicate with WhatsApp - Telegram? Signal? Something else?
And now that there’s an article, it’s behind a paywall…
WhatsApp will allow any service to communicate with their network. But wether or not any do is entirely up to those other apps. I think there’s very little chance Signal will ever interoperate with anything for example. iMessage surely won’t either.
Technically it shouldn’t be difficult, because almost every chat app these days uses the same protocol (Signal which is an unofficial industry standard and soon to be an official one). The question is how well it fits with their business model. And most companies don’t share their business model.
The other issue is the recipient needs to opt in. You won’t be able to send messages to just anyone… and if spam is an issue then everyone might turn it off.
The bigger question for me is wether or not you will be able to use a third party app to access WhatsApp. As in full access, view all messages, view contacts, create messages, receive push notifications, etc etc. It looks like the DMA might allow a return to software like Adium which is an open source messaging app that used to be able to log into almost any messaging service. These days none of the most popular services are available in the app, so almost nobody uses it.
Adium… They named an app ‘the element of advertisement’?
Adium… now that’s a name I have not heard for a while. Used to have a super nice customized version to chat with friends on various platforms. It was amazing. Thanks for the nostalgia trip!
https://archive.ph/XXoKh
there’s no paywall, the whole article is readable. but in summary, they don’t know yet which apps will have this implemented, if any.
They give you only so many free articles per month, I had to circumvent a paywall as well
So two Facebook products are interoperable with each other? Wow…
Not yet, if I’m reading this right! They will be, because the EU forced them to be I guess?
I am finding it as ridiculous as you are.
They’ll pull an Apple out of their arse and somehow break it outside the EU.
I definitely expect this. And I expect the EU to tear both them and Apple a new one.