WhatsApp’s third-party chats feature will retain end-to-end encryption, Meta revealed

WhatsApp Meta explained on Wednesday that it will take some more time to bring the third-party chats feature to users. According to the European Union (EU) Digital Markets Act (DMA), which went live on March 6, requires platforms to offer messaging interoperability in individual conversations in the region within three months. However, Metta said this would take the messaging platform longer than expected, citing limitations in implementing end-to-end encryption (E2EE) architecture for third-party providers. The company also said that features like group chats as well as audio and video calling will be possible only after 2024.

In detail Post, Meta highlighted its work on interoperability features, its plans to work with other messaging platforms, and the limitations that are preventing it from adding the feature to users in a timely manner. The tech giant said it has been developing security and privacy-based processes for interoperability for about two years and has consulted with the European Commission.

According to the social media giant, technical challenges with interoperability are the main reason for the delay. However, it aims that by the end of the year, it will be able to share individual text messaging, voice messages as well as photos, videos and other attached files between end users. While he did not provide a timeline, Meta Mentioned that implementing group chats and calling features remains in its plans.

To enable interoperability with WhatsApp, third-party providers will need to sign an agreement to enable third-party chats. “To maximize user security, we would prefer third-party providers to use the Signal protocol. Since this is to work for everyone, however, we encourage third-party providers to use a consistent protocol.” will allow if they are able to demonstrate that it offers the same security guarantees as Signal,” added Meta.

Highlighting the technicalities, the post explained that WhatsApp uses the Novice Protocol framework to encrypt all data between the end user and the servers. As part of the protocol, third-party providers will need to do what the company calls a ‘novice handshake’, which describes the process of delivering a payload to a server along with a JWT token.

As part of the Shore protocol, the third-party client must perform a “novice handshake” each time the client connects to the WhatsApp server. Part of this handshake is delivering a payload to the server that includes a JSON web token (JWT token). Creating data with the option to add signature and encryption is a proposed standard. This will be the key to connect to WhatsApp servers.

Meanwhile, Meta also said that while it will take responsibility for E2EE while the data is on WhatsApp’s servers and in transit, it cannot ensure the same once the data is received by the third-party client.

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