WhatsApp is changing. It’s about to add a remarkable new feature so messages sent from other services can fetch up in WhatsApp. That’s in response to the new Digital Markets Act which comes into force in the European Union in early March. And other big changes are coming, it’s now been revealed. These include a change to the minimum age you have to be to use the app, and new details about what is and isn’t permissible. Here’s what’s new.
As spotted by The Independent, the new terms and conditions will “include extra information about what is or is not allowed on the app, give more information about an EU requirement that will force companies such as WhatsApp to allow users to send messages to users on other third-party apps, and will include more information about how content is moderated on the Channels feature.”
What Interoperability Will Mean
Of all these changes, the interoperability is the most striking, assuming other messaging apps want to see their messages land in WhatsApp. No other apps have yet indicated they want this.
WhatsApp notes that this change has consequences, as some data will be sent to third-party messaging services, “and therefore might not be subject to WhatsApp’s privacy commitments,” The Independent reports.
However, a WhatsApp spokesperson said in a statement, “These updates for users in the European Region do not change our commitment to user privacy and do not expand any data sharing when messaging other WhatsApp user.”
The statement went on, “Wherever you are in the world, we protect all personal messages with end-to-end encryption, which means no one, not even WhatsApp, can read or listen to them.”
Minimum Age Change
Right now, the minimum age you have to be to use WhatsApp is not uniform globally. In the U.S., it’s 13 years, in the U.K. and the EU, it’s 16. With the new terms and conditions, it will drop to 13 everywhere, with WhatsApp saying this change has been made to ensure consistency. The age range was previously raised in 2018 from 13 to 16 in response to a different EU rules and has been inconsistent in different countries since. This new move will standardize it again. The company said it was done to “ensure a consistent minimum age requirement for WhatsApp globally.”
These changes are wide-ranging and, according to the Irish Mirror, come into effect on Friday, February 16. Though they seem subtle, they will affect how WhatsApp works for users.