Interoperability: What is needed of a WhatsApp Messenger app to protect their Messages from other apps? A Comment on the Case of WhatsApp

For about the last two years, WhatsApp has been building a way for other messaging apps to plug into its service and let people chat across apps without compromising on the privacy and security of peoples messages. The move is the first time the chat app has opened itself up this way and potentially offers greater competition.

However, it all depends on whether other companies get on board, as there are still concerns about how the Meta-owned app will keep messages safe and encrypted when it starts incorporating other services.

WhatsApp users who opt-in will see messages from other apps in a separate section at the top of their inbox. This is a third-party chat inbox which was previously spotted in the app. The networks are different so the early thinking is to put a separate inbox. He says that they can’t give the same level of privacy and security. If WhatsApp were to add SMS, it would use a separate inbox as well, although there are no plans to add it, he says.

The idea behind interoperability is very simple. If you want to communicate with your friends and family from one messaging app to another, you don’t need to know what messaging app they use. In the ideal world, you could use Apple’s iMessage to talk with someone on Telegram. For messaging applications with a lot of users, it is difficult to make this a reality, as their privacy standards are different.