Consumer Messaging Platform — WhatsApp-Class System  ·  View 01 of 23

System Context

Who uses the platform, which external services it depends on, and what crosses the boundary — with no internal components shown.

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Identity & device platforms
Identity & device platforms
SMS & Voice OTP
Phone verification
SMS & Voice OTP...
Apple APNs
Apple APNs
Google FCM
Google FCM
Device Attestation
Play Integrity / DeviceCheck
Device Attestation...
People
People
Individual User
Phone-number identity
Individual User...
Group & Community Admin
Group & Community Admin
Trust & Safety Analyst
Trust & Safety Analyst
Network & storage services
Network & storage services
Global CDN
Media edge
Global CDN...
STUN / TURN Relay
NAT traversal
STUN / TURN Relay...
Cloud Backup Providers
iCloud / Google Drive
Cloud Backup Providers...
Consumer Messaging Platform
Chat, calls, status
Consumer Messaging Platform...
Partners & governance
Partners & governance
Device Address Book
On-device contacts
Device Address Book...
Business Platform Partners
Template messaging
Business Platform Partners...
Regulators & Law Enforcement
Regulators & Law Enforcement
chats, calls, status
chats, calls, status
membership, policy
membership, policy
reports, appeals
reports, appeals
send code
send code
wake device
wake device
wake device
wake device
verify device
verify device
encrypted blobs
encrypted blobs
call media path
call media path
encrypted backup
encrypted backup
hashed discovery
hashed discovery
REST + webhook
REST + webhook
metadata under process
metadata under process
Consumer Messaging Platform — System Context
Consumer Messaging Platform — System Context
External / third party
External / third party
Person or role
Person or role
synchronous
synchronous
event / async
event / async
batch
batch
Message content is never available to the platform; only metadata and ciphertext cross this boundary.
Message content is never available to the platform; only metadata and ciphertext cross this boundary.
v 1.0 · owner Platform Architecture · date 2026-08
v 1.0 · owner Platform Architecture · date 2026-08Text is not SVG - cannot display

In scope

  • Phone-number identity, contact discovery, profile and blocking
  • 1:1, group, community and broadcast messaging with media
  • Voice and video calls, status posts, multi-device sessions
  • Delivery guarantees, presence, receipts and offline queuing

Out of scope

  • Message content inspection, moderation of plaintext or content-derived ranking
  • Payments, commerce catalogue and advertising surfaces
  • Carrier-side SMS delivery and handset operating system behaviour

Boundary constraints

  • The platform holds ciphertext and metadata only; no private key ever leaves a device
  • Push providers are wake-only channels and carry no message content
  • Address-book discovery uploads salted hashes, never raw numbers
Solution Architecture v1.0 · Platform Architecture · 2026-0801-system-context