EU introduced DMA which demanded a lot of changes from Apple and other tech companies. Regulations in the Digitial Markets Act were introduced for the benefit of the users. Because of the EU’s DMA regulation, WhatsApp will now have to allow WhatsApp to support third-party chats. 

With third-party chat support, users will be able to access chats of other platforms on WhatsApp. For instance, if your friend uses Telegram then you will be able to chat with them on WhatsApp even if they don’t have a WhatsApp account. This feature will provide flexibility to users to stick to just one messaging app to converse with their friends. 

WhatsApp is currently testing this feature in its latest beta. It is currently seen in their latest beta for iOS, that a new third-party chat section is made available which has chats from third-party messaging platforms. The feature will be introduced to the public version very soon. 

With that being said, there are also reports that Apple’s iMessage can also be the next target of EU’s DMA regulation and Apple may be forced to bring similar changes to their messaging app. Especially with the EU forcing a lot of changes on Apple, this can be the next change we might see.