WhatsApp legally threatens other messaging applications

Let's make a few things clear before we get into it, because it can be quite a significant mess for the reader. First, we will tell you what the APIs are. APIs are a set of protocols and utilities used by computer developers, in this case, developers of Android applications. The word API is an acronym that in English means 'Application Programming Interfaces (Application Programming Interface). If you use the Word program to write text, the application developer uses an API to create them.Without these APIs, applications do not exist.

WhatsApp and its crusade against messaging applications

That being said, there are numerous applications that use the APIs of others to offer their services. For example, a Twitter manager can use its APIs to offer a user alternative to this social network. There are companies that are more permissive than others in this regard. For example, Twitter doesn't like it too much when other applications use its APIs to offer alternative services and often overrides them. And now WhatsApp wants to do the same.

It already achieved this with the WhatsApp+ service, which allowed an enriched experience in the messaging application that we all know. In this case, WhatsApp was right since the other app used APIs created by its developers. Now he wants to do the same with DirectChat, although in this case it is not so clear that it uses the WhatsApp APIs and not those directly created by the Android system.

DirectChat is an application that we can find in the Google Play Store, totally free although with ads, and what it does is provide the user with personalization of the 'ChatHeads'. And what are these 'ChatHeads'? Well, nothing less than the pop-up notifications in the form of a bar that appear on the top screen of the phone when we receive a message And this functionality does not belong to WhatsApp. What's more, DirectChat offers its personalization service to more than 20 messaging applications, including WhatsApp.

What are the intentions of WhatsApp?

It's hard to understand how DirectChat could be infringing intellectual property rights when, in fact, it's using Android APIs instead of the ones created by WhatsApp Is it a strategy of the messaging application to get out of the way of the competition?

However, in the letter that WhatsApp sent to the DirectChat developers, allusions are made to points that are easily removable by the same company. It is difficult, if not impossible, for WhatsApp on this occasion to get away with it, but this advance can be a somewhat dangerous point and aside.

Although the matter is far from clear, this movement by WhatsApp, an all-powerful company protected under the arms of Mark Zuckerberg, may suppose a full stop for dozens from developers of similar applications Small companies that require external APIs created by Android and that could be intimidated by the advance of WhatsApp.

If you want to try DirectChat for yourself and draw your own conclusions, you can find it completely free in the Android Google Play Store. Its installation file weighs about 7 MB so you can download it whenever you want.