Meta AI has been accessible within WhatsApp for almost two years, helping users draft texts, answer questions and make good morning images. However, as Meta AI became more deeply integrated into WhatsApp, not everyone has been open to talking to an AI chatbot within their primary messaging app. To address those concerns, Meta has taken a major step today to squash privacy concerns and introduced Incognito Chat with Meta AI.
You Can Now Have Incognito Chats with Meta AI
Incognito Chat with Meta AI lets you have fully private conversations with the company AI chatbot. It is not just another temporary chat feature, already found in ChatGPT and Google Gemini. Instead, Meta is using its Private Processing technology to make your conversation with Meta AI end-to-end encrypted.
This means that when you use the Incognito Chat with Meta AI feature, neither Meta nor WhatsApp will be able to access your questions and the AI's replies to you. The company emphasises that your AI chat is 'truly private' and no one can access it.
"The system is built to ensure that: Sharing messages with Private Processing does not make them available to Meta, WhatsApp, or anyone else," says Meta's Private Processing technical paper. How is that possible, you ask?
When you start an Incognito Chat with Meta AI, Private Processing creates a secure cloud environment exclusively for that chat. Here, Meta's AI models (yes, models, as Meta AI states that multiple AI models can work together to solve a query) can analyse and process messages sent by the user. This way, you can openly chat with the AI without the risk of Meta or WhatsApp snooping on you.
Furthermore, the secure environment session is completed once you close the chat window. It doesn't save the conversation and the messages exchanged are deleted by default.
WhatsApp made end-to-end encrypted messaging available worldwide nearly 10 years ago and it has taken a major step to extend this privacy to Meta AI chats today.
Side Chat with Meta AI Is Coming Soon
Incognito Chat with Meta AI is the first step towards privacy-first AI conversations. However, Meta AI has more ambitious plans for the future. WhatsApp and the Meta AI app will also get a Side Chat with Meta AI feature in the coming months.
Instead of a standalone private AI chat, Side Chat will see Meta AI become available within your existing chats. It will provide help with your conversations, be it finding the best reply, a new restaurant, or simply creating an image, based on the chat's context. This is a more invasive feature that many will think twice before using.
Incognito Chat with Meta AI is now available for testing within WhatsApp and the Meta AI app. Users in India will have to wait, though, as it is not available in the country at launch. Meta aims to gradually roll out the feature to more people in the coming months.
