WhatsApp Can Now Create AI-Powered Summaries For Your Messages: Here is How To Turn On The Latest Feature On The Meta Platform

Meta Platforms, Inc. META has launched a new AI-powered feature for WhatsApp that summarizes unread messages.

What Happened: On Wednesday, Meta announced the new feature that leverages Meta AI to generate summaries of unread messages, which are visible only to the user, not anyone in the chat. 

“Message Summaries uses Private Processing technology, which allows Meta AI to generate a response without Meta or WhatsApp ever seeing your messages or the private summaries,” the company said in a blog post.

See Also: Mark Zuckerberg's Meta Dangled ‘$100 Million Signing Bonuses' To OpenAI Team Members, Says Sam Altman: Happy ‘None' Of Our Best People Took Them

The feature is optional and is turned off by default. Users will see a small icon indicating when the feature is available.

 Users can enable or disable the function via Settings > Chats > Private Processing.

Meta has launched the feature first in the U.S. with English language support and it will be expanded to more countries and languages later this year.

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Why It’s Important: Earlier this week, the U.S. House of Representatives reportedly banned WhatsApp from staff devices, citing major cybersecurity concerns.

A memo from the Office of the Chief Administrative Officer flagged the app as a “high risk” due to its lack of data protection transparency and insufficient encryption. Staff are advised to use more secure alternatives like Signal, Apple Inc.'s AAPL iMessage and FaceTime, Microsoft Corporation's MSFT Teams and Amazon.com, Inc.’s AMZN Wickr.

Meta has pushed back against the decision, claiming WhatsApp offers stronger security than the recommended apps.

WhatsApp has also reportedly become a major battleground for AI chatbots, with OpenAI and Perplexity joining Meta's own assistant in vying for user attention on the platform's 3 billion-strong user base. 

Price Action: Meta shares fell 0.49% during Wednesday’s regular trading session and saw a slight gain of 0.017% after hours, according to Benzinga Pro.

Benzinga’s Edge Stock Rankings indicate a consistent upward trend for META across short, medium and long-term timeframes. More performance details are available here.

Photo Courtesy: BigTunaOnline on Shutterstock.com

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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.