WhatsApp adds incognito mode in Meta AI chats

Meta said on Wednesday that it is adding the ability to start “incognito” conversations with its Meta AI chatbot within WhatsApp. The company said that these conversations will be processed in a secure environment and cannot be seen by anyone.

Users can start an incognito session by tapping on a new icon in one-on-one chats using Meta AI. The company said the feature will also be available on the standalone Meta AI app as well.

Incognito chats on WhatsApp and the Meta AI app will be rolling out over the next few months.

These incognito chats are not saved, and the messages will disappear by default once you close the chat, Meta said. The session will also end if you close the app or lock your phone, and Meta AI will lose the context of that specific conversation, the company said.

“People are starting to use AI for everything, including some of their most private thoughts, whether it’s addressing financial or health questions, or getting tips on how to respond to a difficult message from a friend or colleague. “We think it’s really important to give people the ability to ask these questions as privately as possible,” Alice Newton-Rex, VP of Product at WhatsApp, told TechCrunch over a phone call.

The company has been laying the groundwork for secure AI conversations on WhatsApp for a while now. Last year, it detailed proprietary processing infrastructure that would allow it to build AI features without breaking end-to-end encryption. Since then, WhatsApp has added features like AI-powered message summaries that use this architecture.

Newton-Rex said Meta used smaller models to power its previous features, but the new incognito chat uses the newer Muse Spark model, which was released last month.

The company is already working on the next feature that exploits infrared rays for special processing. Called Side Chat, it allows users to summon Meta AI within chats to ask questions and get answers privately without notifying or showing it to other people in the chat.

Currently, you need to flag a message and ask a question to the AI ​​Assistant to get an answer that other chat participants can see. If you want to ask a question privately, you must paste the text into a separate chat window.

ChatGPT and Cloud offer incognito modes as well, and companies like DuckDuckGo and Proton have launched their own privacy-first chatbots.

Meta’s move toward private AI conversations comes at a crucial time. Last month, Reuters cited lawyers who argued that users’ conversations with an AI-powered chatbot could be used against them in lawsuits.