On Wednesday, Meta announced that it is adding an AI-powered summary feature to WhatsApp. The new optional feature uses Meta AI to summarize unread chat messages.
Only you can see this summary, not other chat users, the company says.
This feature is based on the artificial intelligence technology that Meta released in April, which allowed the company to implement AI features that do not affect encryption or user privacy.
“Message summaries use private processing technology that allows Meta AI to generate a response without Meta or WhatsApp ever seeing your messages or private summaries. No one else in the chat can also see that you have summarized unread messages,” the company said in a blog post.
Although the feature is turned off by default, WhatsApp shows a small icon to indicate that it is available to you.
Meta is initially launching this feature in the US with support for English. Later this year, it will be available in other countries and languages.
Until now, users could address Meta AI in chat to ask general questions or tag messages to give the chatbot context. However, Meta AI could not read your messages.
Meta stated that the new stack allows WhatsApp to privately access the context from your chat to process queries using its AI. This allows it to summarize messages or provide writing suggestions.
The new AI features are available in a new setting accessible under Settings > Chats > Private Processing, where you can enable or disable individual features.
