Apparently Europe finally got Whatsapp to enable 3rd party chats making it easier to switch to more privacy friendly alternatives article However the only other app that currently works with it is “BirdyChat”??
Have anybody found any news about when serious alternatives will be integrated?
WhatsApp was originally built on, and still is, a forked version of XMPP. It is nothing like the matrix protocol.
It’s not, but they made a WhatsApp API for the DMA. There’s a Matrix bridge to WhatsApp.
I understand the DMA interop thing quite well, and it is a private API. The matrix bridge does not use official interop as the Matrix foundation has given up on plans to do interop, as it requires geolocating (and then georestricting) their users.
The current, longstanding, matrix bridge requires you to have the WhatsApp app installed on your phone, with a working account.