Latvia-based BirdyChat has officially launched across Europe, becoming one of the first home-grown messaging apps in line with the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) by offering direct, encrypted communication with WhatsApp users.
After building a waiting list of around 50,000 users in just six months, the professional-focused app is now available on iOS, Android and macOS.
It aims to carve out a distinct space for work-related conversations, separate from personal messaging, while leveraging the DMA’s interoperability rules to challenge the dominance of Big Tech platforms.
BirdyChat has emerged as a poster child for the EU’s efforts to open up closed messaging ecosystems.
Alongside Haiket (a voice-first communication app), it was one of the first services to integrate with WhatsApp under the DMA. It allows European users to message WhatsApp contacts directly from the app using only a phone number, without forcing recipients to download a new platform.
This interoperability, built in collaboration with Facebook and WhatsApp owner Meta and the European Commission over several years, marks a concrete step towards greater “contestability” in digital communications and moves against the domination of a select view US companies.
Contestability in economics refers to a market structure where potential competition, rather than the actual number of firms, dictates behaviour.
Co-founder Rolands Mesters framed the launch as part of a broader push for European alternatives.
“Most of the messaging apps we use today are over a decade old. And the majority of them are owned and hosted outside of the EU,” hhe saidd.
“We see a lot of people looking for European alternatives for their techstack. BirdyChat offers a dedicated alternative where work conversations can live.”
In a reaction to Brussels Signal regarding the app’s earnings model, Mesters said today: “BirdyChat is free for individuals. Later this year BirdyChat aims to introduce paid features for businesses around productivity and compliance.”
He confirmed that the app was modular, saying: “One of the best features is ‘lists’, where you can organise chats based on your own preferences.”
While Slack and Microsoft Teams dominate internal company chat, external communication with clients and partners often spills into personal apps such as WhatsApp.
A 2025 LinkedIn poll by Mesters found 72 per cent of professionals expressed reservations about mixing work and personal messages on the same platform.
BirdyChat uses work email addresses as usernames, supports threaded discussions, project-based chat lists and full message history. The company says the goal is to reduce compliance risks for businesses and help professionals disconnect more easily after work.
The Riga-based start-up, founded in 2025 by Mesters and engineer Martins Spilners, recently raised €1.7 million. Investors include DIG Ventures (lead), Change Ventures, Tiny VC, FIRSTPICK, Lumo Capital, Tesonet, Bolt co-founder Markus Villig and angel investor Charlie Songhurst.
BirdyChat uses the Signal Protocol for end-to-end encryption in its WhatsApp interoperability, in line with Meta’s requirements.
Not all privacy-focused players have embraced the DMA route, though.
Signal itself declined to participate, citing concerns over metadata protection, potential new attack surfaces and the risk of weakening overall security guarantees when bridging platforms.
While content remains encrypted, cross-platform connections inevitably involve trade-offs in metadata handling and implementation complexity.
In a reaction to Brussels Signal on possible involuntary sharing of data, Udbhav Tiwari the Vice President for Strategy and Global Affairs at messenger app Signal, noted today that, in order to work with WhatsApp, being interoperable requires sharing phone numbers.
This clashes with Signal’s privacy design.
On WhatsApp, message content is encrypted,but metadata (such as phone numbers, time of messaging or calling and so forth, stays visible to Meta.
Signal would need to make major changes to be interoperable. It would have to start collecting and sharing data it currently does not have.
Signal is currently still too small to be forced to follow the DMA, which only would change if it sees huge growth.
The onus lies on WhatsApp to open up for other messenger apps and the big platform decides how interoperability works based on its protocols.
Outsiders, like BirdyChat, tthough, have to fulfil technical requirements to achieve it.
Tiwari noted it is always a difficult technical challenge to achieve interoperability, although the demands of the DMA are neutral in nature and do not necessarily demand the sharing of metadata. In this case, it does because of WhatsApp.
The European Commission has indicated it would limit its Digital Markets Act (DMA) fines due in the week starting April 1 on Apple and Meta and drop a separate case against Apple entirely. https://t.co/SDRqy8jMyX
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) March 28, 2025
