WhatsApp

WhatsApp is Meta's end-to-end encrypted messaging platform with over 3 billion monthly active users worldwide, making it the most widely used messaging app globally outside China. Owned by Meta since 2014, it operates across iOS, Android, and the web, and is the dominant messaging channel across South Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and much of Europe. The service is free for personal use; Meta monetises it through business messaging APIs and, from 2026, bundled subscription tiers.

In May 2026, Meta included WhatsApp in its Meta One subscription tier rollout, launching at $7.99 (Plus) and $19.99 (Premium) per month, offering expanded AI compute across Meta's family of apps. WhatsApp access itself remains free; the subscription gates additional AI capabilities layered on top of the core messaging product. In the Iran conflict context, WhatsApp was identified as one of the apps whose availability was partially restored after Iran lifted its record 2,093-hour internet blackout in May 2026, illustrating the app's significance as a communications lifeline in digitally restricted environments.

On 9 June 2026, WhatsApp's Business API became the subject of landmark EU antitrust action: the European Commission issued Article 102 interim measures ordering Meta to restore API access to rival AI assistants, ruling that Meta had foreclosed competition in AI services by restricting third-party integration. This is the first time interim measures under competition law have been applied to a platform's AI access policies. The ruling has direct implications for how Meta can gate AI capabilities across WhatsApp and its other platforms, and sets a template for European regulators seeking to enforce interoperability at the AI layer.