Europe: WhatsApp opens for third-party apps

[s1mplicissimus]

I wanted to try this, but it's not possible (yet?) for regular folks apparently.

Supposedly the two apps "BirdyChat" and "Hiket" are WA compatible. Both are waitlist only.

Even after searching for ~15 minutes, I could find no information about how to become such a compatible provider.

I hope this situation will improve drastically, but it also looks like Meta will do whatever they can to make it as hard and annoying as possible, as they don't want to lose market share. Disappointing.

[toast0]

> Even after searching for ~15 minutes, I could find no information about how to become such a compatible provider.

I think that info is here:

https://developers.facebook.com/m/messaging-interoperability...

Search terms: whatsapp dma program

Disclosure: I worked for WhatsApp until 2019, which included detecting 3rd party applications and blocking them when they didn't follow (unpublished) specifications.

[wkat4242]

Yeah Id love to officially link my matrix instance to it. But they have lots of red tape, and outrageous requirements like wanting to know the IP of every end user that is bridged.

Luckily the user bridge works pretty ok.

[zkmon]

There are already a huge number of apps running on whatsapp in India for booking of cooking gas refill, car insurance renewal etc. Basically, user interaction is driven using chat until all inputs are captured. I think this is very effective as it requires familiarity with only one app.

Whatsapp as universal user interface.

[kakadu]

Is this one of the instances where European regulations hurt businesses?

[wkat4242]

I doubt it. Both apps that are supported have nonexistent userbases in Europe.

[nubg]

This seems pretty big news?

Perhaps the start of instant messaging becoming more like email?

[ekjhgkejhgk]

Start of facebook's malicious compliance.

[arp242]

Is there something new here? Because it seems the same as the DMA compliance they had to do in early 2024?

See e.g.: WhatsApp Messaging Interoperability - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39633936 - Mar 2024 (146 comments)

[kevin061]

No, lol, WhatsApp remains in full control of user IDs. Maybe if they make WA federated, but we both know this is not gonna happen.

[mmh0000]

https://delta.chat/en/

[kasabali]

When I open the page all I see is:

> Chats with third-party apps are only available in select regions and may not be available to you.

Even the FAQ page is geo restricted. What a shitty attitude.

[gschizas]

I'm in Europe and I see the same page. I don't think it's geoblocked.