As Europe tightens its grip on Big Tech through new regulatory frameworks, even long-standing walled gardens are beginning to open their gates. WhatsApp is now entering that phase. Meta has announced the rollout of third-party chat interoperability across the European market, a move that, in our view at YourNewsClub, marks a structural shift in how major messaging platforms coexist with regulators and competitors.
Under the Digital Markets Act, users must be able to exchange messages across different services once developers support interoperability. After months of controlled testing, WhatsApp is preparing to connect with its first partners, BirdyChat and Haiket, enabling European users to send messages, photos, videos, voice notes and files to people outside WhatsApp. Group chats will follow as soon as partner apps adapt their infrastructure.
At YourNewsClub we note a critical design choice: cross-platform communication is not enabled by default. Instead, WhatsApp will present a dedicated onboarding prompt, explain how third-party messaging works, highlight differences in security guarantees, and allow users to choose between a separate inbox or a blended view. The platform fulfills DMA requirements while preserving a high degree of control over how the feature is adopted.
Security sits at the center of this transformation. Meta states that third-party services must match WhatsApp’s level of end-to-end encryption, effectively aligning with its existing cryptographic stack. Jessica Larn, who studies technology policy at an infrastructural scale, argues that this was inevitable: “Once a dominant platform is required to open up, it compensates through strict security thresholds. Encryption stops being just a technical safeguard and becomes a gatekeeping mechanism.” Under this model, partners integrate with WhatsApp’s protocol rather than introducing their own.
Despite the word “interoperability,” WhatsApp is not becoming a fully federated system. Third-party chats will work only on iOS and Android at launch, excluding desktop, web and tablet clients. Advanced features such as calls, video chats and expanded media tools will be introduced gradually, if partners support them at all. At YourNewsClub, we see this as a pragmatic balance: Meta complies with regulation while preventing competitors from instantly piggybacking on its network of over two billion users.
For smaller messaging apps, the new model presents both opportunity and constraint. Interoperability gives them access to users they could never reach on their own. But in return, they must accept Meta’s rules and encryption architecture, effectively acknowledging WhatsApp as the dominant node in Europe’s messaging landscape. Maya Renn, an analyst focused on computational ethics and access regimes, observes that “this is not just technical alignment. It is the creation of a new access regime in which the largest platform defines the conditions of participation.”
Meta emphasizes that the rollout is the result of a three-year collaboration with EU regulators and European messaging services. Each third-party app must undergo validation, implement a dedicated communication protocol and demonstrate encryption compliance. The result resembles a controlled gateway rather than a fully open network.
Even with these constraints, the launch of third-party chats represents a profound shift. It is the first time a major global messenger is compelled to expose its communication interfaces to competitors. At Your News Club, we believe the success or failure of WhatsApp’s European transition will shape how mandatory interoperability evolves in other digital sectors as well.
We expect adoption to remain limited in the early years, mostly driven by advanced users, enterprise teams and enthusiasts. Yet this initial phase will lay the groundwork for de-facto standards that determine how interoperability functions across the industry. The implications are becoming unmistakable: users should carefully review the trust and data policies of third-party apps; developers must weigh the strategic trade-offs of integrating with WhatsApp; regulators should monitor not only formal compliance but also the fairness of access conditions. If DMA enforcement continues at its current pace, the defining question may soon shift from “Which messenger are you on?” to “Which cross-platform ecosystem does your inbox belong to?”