WhatsApp to allow you to send messages to third-party apps like Telegram, Signal: Report

WhatsApp users might soon be able to send messages to third-party apps like Signal, and Telegram. As per a report by WABetaInfo, this WhatsApp chat interoperability feature is developed in response to Europe’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) regulations that give large companies or ‘gatekeepers’ six months to facilitate communication between different messaging apps.

This feature was spotted on WhatsApp beta version 2.24.5.18. As per the screenshot shared in the report, WhatsApp is currently working on the ability to turn off the chat interoperability service, for a future update of the app. The report further adds that the messaging platform will also allow users to decide which third-party apps they can share messages with. This will allow users to control the sharing of their data with external services. They will be able to choose apps they fully trust and even opt out of them whenever they want.

Notably, once you disable the chat interoperability service, you will lose the ability to send or receive messages in third-party apps. These chats will then transition to read-only mode, remaining accessible within WhatsApp until you decide to delete them.

This feature is currently until developed, no release timeline has been revealed by the company as of now. Dick Brouwer, an engineering director at WhatsApp, confirmed Wired magazine that the chat interoperability feature will soon release to WhatsApp in response to the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA) regulations. The feature will initially focus on messages, media files, and docs instead of calls and group chats.

In addition to this, WhatsApp recently introduced a new ‘Search by Date’ feature for Android users. With this feature, users will be able to look for messages media files or documents simply by entering the date they were sent after. This will allow users to navigate through thousands of chats to look for specific messages. As per the company, the search-by-date feature is currently rolling out for Android users and is already available on iOS, Mac and WhatsApp web.

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