Platform integrates WhatsApp and other messaging apps – 10/24/2023 – Tech

Texts, the application that promises to bring together messages from all applications in one place, was purchased for US$50 million (R$250.3 million) this Tuesday (24). The person responsible for the proposal was Automattic, the holding company that controls WordPress.com and Tumblr.

The platform brings together messages from WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal, iMessage, Messenger, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, IRC, Slack and private messages from Discord.

In an interface similar to WhatsApp, the platform brings together message senders on the left and chats on the right. A small sticker next to the photo indicates which platform the message came from. It is still possible to archive messages and only see unread ones.

Today, the platform has a waiting list for access. You can access it at this link. To jump the queue, there are two alternatives: receive a recommendation from a friend who is already registered or subscribe to the service for US$12.50 (around R$63).

Texts informs that subscriptions are its only source of income, so far.

The message aggregator says it does not receive the content sent on servers, which would guarantee the integrity of the applications’ end-to-end encryption. “All messages are sent directly to the platform.”

This is done using a message distribution protocol, which, simply put, automatically redirects content from the messaging application to the Texts account.

In this way, Texts states that it does not store sensitive data from its users. “Personal information remains secure even in a data breach event.”

The platform was financed by executives linked to Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, the payments company Stripe, among other technology giants.

This is the most user-centric solution ever attempted, giving users an alternative to detaching themselves from platforms and, at the same time, supporting them all, Automattic chief executive Matt Mullenweg told the specialized website Verge. Another strong point of the platform is encryption, according to Mullenweg.

The acquisition is Automattic’s first foray into online messaging. Until then, the company operates in the area of ​​publishing and e-commerce.

Meta, owner of WhatsApp, may also be working on messaging app integration solutions.

In September, WhatsApp testers noticed a dysfunctional tab with the title “Third-party chats”, something like, third-party chat.

Integration with competing applications is one of the new requirements of the new European regulatory framework against anti-competitive practices on the internet —DMA (digital markets act, in free translation).

WhatsApp was one of 19 applications from the 6 largest technology companies listed by the European Union as a target of the new regulation. The messenger has more than 100 million users on the old continent, according to the Similar Web monitoring platform.

Meta was approached by Sheet at the time and preferred not to comment.