Not part of the WhatsApp club yet? Not to worry, it looks like you’ll soon still be able to dip your toes in without signing up.
A new feature called «guest chats,» found by WABetaInfo in a beta build ,will reportedly allow anyone without a WhatsApp account to chat with someone who does after the feature is rolled out in a future update.
To start a guest chat, an app user would need to invite a non-app user via a link to an online chat. The invited party does not need to have WhatsApp installed on their phone nor have a WhatsApp account, and the sender can share the online chat link on any platform they choose — text, email, social media, etc.
Upon opening a chat link, the guest will be able to engage in encrypted chat with the sender. The guest chats will be only one-to-one — no group chats — and photos, videos or GIFs can be allowed to be shared. Voice and video messages won’t be supported.
Meta did not immediately to inquiries from CNET about this story.
This forthcoming WhatsApp feature brings app owner Meta further in line with the European Union’s 2020 Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act. One of the provisions of that legislation was allowing WhatsApp and Messenger users in Europe to communicate with people using other messaging services, what Meta refers to as «third-party chats.»
WhatsApp is the most popular messaging app in the world, with more than 2 billion monthly users. The US leads the way with the most WhatsApp iOS downloads.
