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A New Chapter for European Messaging

The Digital Markets Act (DMA) has been a catalyst for change in the European tech landscape, demanding that dominant platforms expose their protocols to rivals. On 14 November 2025, Meta announced that WhatsApp users in the EU will finally be able to chat with users of BirdyChat and Haiket through a feature it calls third‑party chats.

The feature is not a simple plugin. It is the culmination of more than three years of collaboration between Meta, the European Commission, and the two independent messaging services. The goal: give users the freedom to cross‑app conversations without sacrificing the security guarantees that have become the hallmark of WhatsApp.

How End‑to‑End Encryption Persists

A common concern with interoperability is the erosion of privacy. Meta’s engineering team tackled this head‑on by enforcing a strict equivalence in encryption standards:

  • Same E2EE stack – BirdyChat and Haiket must adopt the same cryptographic protocols that WhatsApp uses, ensuring that only the communicating parties can read the payload.
  • Key management – The key exchange process is mirrored across the platforms, so a message sent from WhatsApp to BirdyChat is encrypted with the recipient’s public key regardless of the underlying app.
  • Metadata isolation – Even though the message traverses a different network, Meta guarantees that no additional metadata is exposed to third‑party services beyond what is required for routing.

This alignment means that the privacy first promise Meta made in its earlier engineering blog is not just a marketing claim but a concrete, verifiable practice.

User Experience: Simple, Optional, Transparent

The rollout is designed to be frictionless. In the coming months, a notification will appear in the Settings tab of WhatsApp, inviting users to opt‑in. Once enabled, the interface behaves like any other chat:

  • Text, images, voice notes, videos, and files can be sent across platforms.
  • Group chats are on the roadmap, contingent on the partner apps’ readiness.
  • Toggle – Users can switch third‑party chats on or off at any time, preserving the core WhatsApp experience.

Meta emphasizes that the onboarding process is clear and that users will be informed of the differences between native WhatsApp chats and third‑party ones, such as potential variations in message delivery guarantees.

Why This Matters for Developers and the Ecosystem

For developers, the interoperability framework opens a new avenue for building cross‑app services. Messaging APIs can now be leveraged to create unified inboxes, bot integrations, or analytics tools that span multiple ecosystems without compromising security.

From a business perspective, the DMA‑mandated openness levels the playing field. Smaller messaging providers can now tap into WhatsApp’s vast user base, while users benefit from a more connected communication landscape. The move also signals that Meta is willing to adapt its platform to regulatory demands, which may influence how other tech giants approach compliance.

Looking Ahead

Meta has pledged to continue expanding interoperability features as required by the DMA. The next logical steps include:

  1. Group chat support across platforms.
  2. Broader partner list – inviting more messaging apps to join the ecosystem.
  3. Developer tools – APIs that allow third‑party services to interoperate with WhatsApp’s backend while maintaining E2EE.

As the European market evolves, the success of this initiative will likely set a precedent for how large platforms balance regulatory compliance, user privacy, and competitive openness.

Source: Meta’s announcement on 14 November 2025, “Messaging interoperability: WhatsApp enables third‑party chats for users in Europe.”