Prime Highlights

• WhatsApp launches AI-created message summaries so users can effortlessly keep up with their missed messages.
• The feature is based on Meta AI and has gone live in English in the United States.

Key Facts:

• Users can tap “Summarize with Meta AI” to receive a private bullet-point summary of missed messages.
• Summaries are generated with Meta’s secure “Private Processing” cloud technology that deletes data after use.
• The feature is optional, can be disabled within one-on-one chats, and will expand into other areas and languages sometime during the remainder of 2025.

Key Background

Meta-owned WhatsApp is introducing a fresh AI feature titled “Message Summaries” that seeks to make it easier to get up to speed with missed messages. In both group chat and individual thread, users are now able to receive an instant summary of what they’ve missed without scrolling through the entire thread. The AI summaries are displayed in bullet points and can be accessed by tapping “Summarize with Meta AI” when there are several unread messages.

To support WhatsApp’s firm commitment to user privacy, the new feature is constructed atop Meta’s proprietary “Private Processing” technology. The technology scans information in secure cloud-based environments called Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs) created specifically to prevent message contents and even the summaries themselves from being readable by Meta or WhatsApp. When a summary is created, it is automatically deleted from the server. This makes sure the data is stored safely and summaries are only accessible to the user who requested them. This feature is only available right now in English and for United States users. It is disabled by default, and customers have to enable it manually in settings. Additionally, chats with “Advanced Chat Privacy” enabled will no longer permit AI summaries, giving even more control to privacy-oriented users.

While the launch is being done in stages, Meta intends to gradually roll out the feature to additional languages and regions later in the year. It’s part of a larger commitment to bringing generative AI to Meta’s platform while keeping it trustworthy and transparent. But Meta is aware that the AI summaries won’t be perfect all the time and encourages individuals to view them as general summaries, not final ones.

The step comes on the heels of other tech firms testing AI message summarization, though less consistently on the part of success or backlash. WhatsApp’s emphasis on safe cloud processing versus device-based AI is also unique in that it is driving the rollout of cutting-edge features to the masses without having to provide expensive hardware.