EU agrees on a law that could make apps like iMessage and WhatsApp work together

You might be able to use iMessage to talk to your friends on WhatsApp by the end of the decade.

That is one of the many implications of the new Digital Markets Act, a piece of legislation European Union member states agreed to on Friday. The expectation is that the final version of the DMA will be voted on by the EU countries in October of this year, and that it will go into effect as early as October of this year.

The basic idea of the bill is that big tech companies like Meta, Google, and Apple can't give too much special treatment to their own apps on a customer. If you get a new phone, you may not use the same browser as before. If you prefer that, you can set it as the default, but you will have more say at the initial setup.

Interoperability between messaging services will be possible beyond that. This is pure speculation, but maybe, just maybe, this could be the first domino to fall in ending the horrible blue text/green text segregation. We can pray for that.

Any company that breaks these rules will be fined 10 percent of their global revenues the first time and 20 percent the second time. After a third violation, the EU could threaten to break up the company.

The EU has been the only regulatory body on the planet to make big tech companies do anything for the greater good. The General Data Protection Regulation was signed into law in Europe in June of last year, and it requires tech companies to notify users of data breeches, ask for consent to track data, and give people information.

Tech companies have shown in the past that they will make exceptions in the way they operate. The California Consumer Privacy Act places limits on how companies can gather and sell user data. Instead of a nationwide shift, the CCPA has prompted companies to carve out an exception and process user data in California.

Users in places like the U.S. got all of the benefits, since it's not really worth the time or resources to make special versions of apps just for Europe. Don't be surprised if you start getting Facebook messages in your iMessage inbox if the DMA becomes reality.