Meta announces updates to WhatsApp and Messenger that will take a privacy-centric approach to building interoperable messaging services

Meta announced updates to WhatsApp and Messenger, which will use a privacy-centric approach to build an interoperable messaging service to comply with the new European Union law, the Digital markets Act (DMA). WhatsApp will require third-party clients to provide proof of ownership of visible identifiers to third-party users when connecting or joining. This proof is built by encrypting and signing identity verification tokens with a signature from a third-party service. WhatsApp uses the standard OpenID protocol (with some minor modifications) and JSON Web Token (JWT Token) to verify user-visible identifiers by periodically obtaining public keys from third-party servers. Additionally, according to Brytfmonline, this update will allow integration of Web3, blockchain dApps, and other social networks with WhatsApp.