Meta brings AI summaries to WhatsApp

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Meta has announced a new feature for WhatsApp that uses AI to help users catch up on unread messages. 

This optional feature, called “Message Summaries,” automatically creates short summaries of messages you haven’t read yet. 

It’s designed to save time, especially when you return to a long chat or group conversation.

Importantly, these summaries are private. Only you can see them—they won’t be visible to anyone else in the chat. 

Meta also emphasized that your privacy is protected. The technology behind this feature, called “Private Processing,” ensures that Meta or WhatsApp cannot actually see your messages or the summaries the AI creates. 

This means the content of your chats remains fully encrypted and private, as it always has been.

Even though the feature is off by default, WhatsApp will show a small icon to let you know that the option is available for your account. 

You can choose whether or not to turn it on. If you do, you can find it by going to Settings > Chats > Private Processing, where you can control which AI tools you want to use.

For now, the new summaries feature is only available in the US and only works in English. However, Meta plans to expand it to more languages and countries later this year.

Previously, Meta AI could answer general questions and help within chats when you asked for help or tagged a message for context. But it couldn’t access your chat content. 

Now, with the new technology, it can safely and privately read enough of your chat to give helpful summaries or writing suggestions, without compromising security.

Meta is using smart technology to make WhatsApp more helpful, while still keeping your conversations private and secure. 

This feature is designed for convenience and is entirely optional, giving users more control over how they manage their chats.

What are your thoughts on AI summaries of your private messages? Are you okay with AI having access to your texts? Tell us below in the comments, or via our Twitter or Facebook.