New EU law could require iMessage and WhatsApp to work with other, smaller platforms

by Shivendra Singh · March 25, 2022

The Digital Markets Act is meant to let small players compete with big ones. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The EU’s newly agreed-upon Digital Markets Act could require messaging app developers to make their apps work together if it ends up being passed. In the EU’s press release, it says that lawmakers agreed that the companies behind WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, or iMessage would have to make their apps “interoperable” with smaller messaging platforms at the developers’ request.

Here’s the relevant part of the EU’s statement:

During a close to 8-hour long trilogue (three-way talks between Parliament, Council and Commission), EU lawmakers agreed that the largest messaging services (such as Whatsapp, Facebook Messenger or iMessage) will have to open up and interoperate with smaller messaging platforms, if they so request. Users of small or…