Meta updates WhatsApp's Terms of Service as it seeks to comply with European DMA law

Meta, the parent company of popular messaging app WhatsApp, has just updated the app’s Terms of Service. Effective today, April 11, 2024, these changes are meant to ensure that the Facebook owner is on the right path to continue its operation in Europe and comply with the Digital Market Act (DMA). 

Besides changing the minimum age from 16 to 13 to make it equal globally, the updated TOS also details “a new EU requirement that gives you the option to send messages from WhatsApp to supported third-party apps.”

Some users, however, mistakenly think Meta will let supported third-party apps use WhatsApp messaging from today. Sort of like a cross-over messaging possibility between apps. Because, per the new EU regulation, WhatsApp must enable basic messaging features to work with other services upon request

That’s not true, and it’s not a “new feature” as well as Meta had actually announced this a few weeks ago. Meta needs about three months to process requests for interoperability with other services, so it might take even longer before this feature is ready for everyone to use.

“We’re also making changes to our international data transfer mechanisms. For users in the European Region, we will rely on the new EU-US Data Privacy Framework,” WhatsApp says further.

As for other points, it doesn’t seem like there are a lot of changes in this updated Terms of Service. Last year, Meta had also said that it’s bringing Meta AI, its latest Microsoft Copilot-like AI assistance, to both Instagram and WhatsApp.