It is no secret that WhatsApp isn’t a fan of third-party clients which is why it does not come as a complete surprise to learn that the company has no immediate plans to release an API for developers. This was confirmed by WhatsApp’s co-founder Brian Acton during this year’s Facebook F8 developer conference.When asked if WhatsApp planned to release an API so that developers could create compatible products, Acton replied in the negative stating that while he gets where these developers are coming from, it’s just not going to happen, at least not anytime soon if ever. “I am very empathetic to your cause. I receive emails on a regular basis from people who want to run their business or want to run something using WhatsApp as the backbone for communication, but we’re balancing that with the user experience.”
Not surprisingly it seems that the audience wasn’t particularly thrilled with his answer. It seems that one of the reasons why WhatsApp does not want to release an API is because they don’t want their users to be inundated with messages they don’t want. It could also be a security issue as explained previously when they clamped down on third-party clients.
According to WhatsApp’s statement at that time, “Third parties that have built unauthorized functionality on top of WhatsApp create issues for people including lost messages. This goes against the experience we work hard to give people and we won’t let it continue.”