Meta Platforms is rolling out a new “Incognito Chat” feature for its artificial intelligence assistant on WhatsApp messaging service, the company said on Wednesday, as it looks to address data privacy concerns.
Meta said incognito chats will be powered by its private processing technology, ensuring conversations remain invisible to anyone, including the company itself.
“Your conversations are not saved and by default, your messages disappear – giving you a space to think and explore ideas without anyone watching,” the company said in a blog post.
Addressing privacy concerns
The move comes as people often share sensitive personal, financial, health or work-related information with AI assistants, despite privacy concerns about how their data could be stored or used by the companies.
“We’re starting to ask a lot of meaningful questions about our lives with AI systems. It doesn’t always feel like you should have to share the information behind those questions with the companies that run those AI systems,” Head of WhatsApp Will Cathcart said in a media briefing.
How it works
According to a company website, messages people share with Meta AI may be used by the social media company to improve its AI models. However, personal chats on WhatsApp remain protected by end-to-end encryption and are not accessible for that purpose.
For now, incognito chat is text-only, meaning users will not be able to upload images, Cathcart said.
He added that the AI will also have built-in safety guardrails, refusing to answer problematic questions or steering conversations in different directions.
What’s coming next
Meta said it also plans to introduce “Side Chat” with Meta AI in the coming months – a feature that will allow users to get private assistance within any chat on WhatsApp.
This means users could ask Meta AI for help or information without leaving their existing conversation thread, making the assistant more seamlessly integrated into everyday messaging.
Why this matters
WhatsApp already offers end-to-end encryption for personal chats, meaning only the sender and recipient can read messages. But conversations with Meta AI – until now – did not offer the same level of privacy assurance.
Incognito Chat addresses that gap by ensuring that even Meta cannot access what users ask its AI assistant. Messages disappear by default, similar to how ephemeral messages work in some other messaging apps.
For users who worry about tech companies storing or analyzing their AI conversations – especially on sensitive topics like health, finances, or relationships – this feature provides a new layer of control.
The text-only limitation may frustrate some users who want to share images. But for those whose primary concern is privacy, Incognito Chat could be a welcome addition to WhatsApp’s growing suite of AI-powered tools.
