Soon you will be able to use WhatsApp to chat with people on other platforms
WhatsApp not only remains astoundingly popular, developers continue to refine existing features and add new capabilities at an astonishing rate. The latest beta version of the messaging app shows exciting signs that it may soon be possible to use WhatsApp to send and receive messages between other platforms.
This is an important -- and much-requested -- development because while WhatsApp has a colossal userbase, it is not yet ubiquitous. The fact remains that not everyone you may want to chat with is necessarily a WhatsApp user. In the future, this should not be a problem with the arrival of support for third-party chats.
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Interoperability between different messaging platforms is something that used to be far more common, but individual apps and services have developed into walled gardens over the years. This is something that the European Union has long voiced its disapproval of, and the bloc is on the verge of introducing legislation that will force companies to allow cross-platform communication.
While this is something that will, legally, only affect Europe, in reality it is likely to lead to global changes. The first signs of this have been spotted in the latest beta version of WhatsApp and screenshots showing a new "Third-party chats" section have been shared by WABetaInfo:
At the moment there is no functionality at all, merely a placeholder for an upcoming section of the app. It is not yet clear quite how cross-platform interoperability will work or how it will look when chats are underway with non-WhatsApp users, but the change is coming... and not before time! Questions remain, however, about what cross-platform support will means for WhatsApp's famous end-to-end encryption and the privacy and security it offers users.
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