Playing devil&#x27;s advocate: WhatsApp is a $22B investment.  It makes sense to try to prevent it from being canabalized from the inside.<p>We&#x27;ve seen something like this before, when AIM allowed MSN Messenger to interoperate.  I know this is a little different, but that was still how AIM lost.<p>Here is a fantastic war story from one of the MSN engineers on the battle to subvert AIM [1].<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;nplusonemag.com&#x2F;issue-19&#x2F;essays&#x2F;chat-wars&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;nplusonemag.com&#x2F;issue-19&#x2F;essays&#x2F;chat-wars&#x2F;</a>