Meta $META is launching a new Incognito Chat feature for its Meta AI assistant on WhatsApp, giving users a way to have private conversations that the company itself cannot access.
The feature is built on WhatsApp's existing private processing technology, which allows AI capabilities to run without breaking end-to-end encryption, the company said. By default, messages vanish once a chat window is closed, and nothing from the session is retained or stored. According to TechCrunch, exiting the app or locking the device terminates the session entirely, leaving the AI with no memory of what was discussed.
A new icon within direct Meta AI chats serves as the entry point for launching an incognito session. Access to the feature is also planned for the dedicated Meta AI app. Both rollouts are expected to complete over the coming months, the company said.
"People are starting to use AI for everything, including some of their most private thoughts, whether that's tackling financial or health questions, or for advice on how to respond to a tricky message from a friend or a 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.
Image uploads are not supported at launch, WhatsApp head Will Cathcart noted in comments reported by Reuters, with the tool currently limited to text exchanges only. Built-in limits on what the AI will engage with are also part of the design, Cathcart said, with the system set to decline or reroute certain lines of inquiry.
Earlier private processing features, including AI-generated message summaries, ran on more compact models; Newton-Rex told TechCrunch that incognito chat instead draws on the Llama Spark model Meta released last month.
A new feature called Side Chat will let users privately access the AI assistant from any WhatsApp conversation. Other participants will not see these exchanges.
The launch responds to rising concerns about data privacy when using AI assistants for sensitive topics. Meta's documentation says that AI conversations outside protected areas can be used for model training, but regular WhatsApp chats, which are protected by end-to-end encryption, are not included in that data collection.