Meta is rolling out Incognito Chat with Meta AI on WhatsApp and the Meta AI app, giving users a private, temporary way to ask AI sensitive questions without those conversations being saved or visible to Meta.
TL;DR
- Meta is launching Incognito Chat with Meta AI on WhatsApp and the Meta AI app over the coming months.
- The feature uses WhatsApp’s Private Processing technology, with messages processed in a secure environment Meta says it cannot access.
- Incognito Chat is text-only for now, while Meta also plans to launch Side Chat for private AI help inside ongoing WhatsApp conversations.
Meta Brings Incognito Chat To WhatsApp AI
Meta Platforms has announced a new Incognito Chat feature for Meta AI on WhatsApp, as the company looks to address rising privacy concerns around how AI chatbots handle personal information. The feature will also be available in the standalone Meta AI app, with rollout expected over the coming months.
The update is built on WhatsApp’s Private Processing technology, which is designed to let AI features operate without weakening WhatsApp’s broader privacy promise. Meta said Incognito Chat conversations will be processed in a secure environment that even the company cannot access, while conversations will not be saved and messages will disappear by default.
In its official announcement, WhatsApp said users are increasingly asking AI assistants questions involving personal, financial, health, or work-related information. The company said Incognito Chat creates a private, temporary conversation where users can explore questions without anyone watching.
The feature also comes as AI privacy is becoming a larger issue for users, regulators, and courts. Reuters noted that people often share sensitive information with AI assistants despite uncertainty about how companies might store or use that data.
What Did WhatsApp And Meta Stakeholders Say?
Will Cathcart, Head of WhatsApp, said during a media briefing that users are now asking meaningful life questions through AI systems and should not always have to share the information behind those questions with the companies running them.
Alice Newton-Rex, VP of Product at WhatsApp, stated that people are using AI for private thoughts, including financial or health questions, and WhatsApp wants to let them ask those questions as privately as possible.
Topics for more insights:
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg also said Incognito Chat handles AI inference inside a Trusted Execution Environment, adding that messages are not accessible to Meta and conversations disappear when users exit the session.
For now, the feature is limited to text. Cathcart said users will not be able to upload images in Incognito Chat at launch, although reports note that image processing and voice recognition support are being worked on.
Side Chat And EU Scrutiny Add More Context
Alongside Incognito Chat, Meta is preparing another feature called Side Chat with Meta AI. This will let WhatsApp users ask Meta AI for private help inside an existing chat, with context from the conversation, without disrupting or revealing the interaction to the rest of the chat.
The launch arrives during a sensitive period for Meta’s AI strategy on WhatsApp. Reuters reported separately that Meta offered rival AI chatbots one month of free WhatsApp Business API access in the European Economic Area while discussing ways to resolve European Commission antitrust concerns.
That EU case follows concerns around Meta’s policy for AI chatbot access to WhatsApp. Reuters reported that the company had introduced a January 15 policy allowing only Meta AI on WhatsApp, later amending it in March to allow rivals to use the messaging app for a fee.
Taken together, Incognito Chat shows Meta trying to position WhatsApp as a privacy-focused home for AI conversations, while also navigating competitive and regulatory pressure over how AI assistants operate inside one of the world’s biggest messaging platforms.
