Meta announced Wednesday it is introducing a new AI-powered message summaries feature to WhatsApp, aimed at helping users quickly catch up on unread messages through brief, automatically generated overviews.
The feature, powered by Meta’s artificial intelligence tools, will be rolled out initially in the United States, with support for English-language chats.
The optional tool will allow WhatsApp users to receive summaries of unread messages in a conversation thread—visible only to the user, not to others in the chat. Meta emphasized that the new feature maintains the platform’s commitment to privacy and encryption, which remains a cornerstone of WhatsApp’s appeal.
“Message Summaries uses Private Processing technology,” Meta said in a blog post. “This allows Meta AI to generate helpful summaries without Meta or WhatsApp ever seeing your messages or the summaries themselves.”
The AI-powered feature expands on Meta’s earlier release of privacy-safe AI tools in April, which were designed to deliver contextual assistance without compromising end-to-end encryption. While WhatsApp users have previously been able to interact with Meta AI—such as asking general questions or tagging messages to provide context—this marks the first time Meta AI can process private chat content to deliver personalized responses.
The company clarified that summaries are not generated or visible unless the user chooses to activate the feature. When available, users will see a small icon indicating that the function can be enabled. The feature remains off by default, reinforcing Meta’s position that users retain full control over their privacy settings.
To manage the new tools, users can go to Settings > Chats > Private Processing, where they can toggle individual AI-powered options, including message summarization and writing assistance.
Meta says this foundational technology opens the door to more advanced AI-driven capabilities in WhatsApp while respecting user privacy. The company also confirmed that the new feature will expand to more countries and languages later this year, as part of a broader push to integrate AI into its suite of messaging products.
The rollout signals Meta’s continued efforts to modernize WhatsApp while preserving its reputation for secure, encrypted messaging. As AI becomes more deeply embedded in everyday apps, the challenge for tech companies lies in balancing innovation with user trust—a balance Meta aims to strike with its private, on-device processing approach.
