Overview
- Meta introduced Incognito Chat on Wednesday for WhatsApp and the Meta AI app, with availability expanding to users over the coming months.
- Chats run inside WhatsApp’s Private Processing system using trusted execution environments that isolate data, and messages disappear when you close the chat, the app, or lock your phone.
- For now the feature is text-only, and Meta says even web lookups can run through anonymized requests so searches are not tied to your account.
- WhatsApp’s Will Cathcart says the AI will steer away from harmful prompts and can end a session, while Meta cites audits by NCC Group and Trail of Bits as reporters note limited public verification and raise trust questions after Instagram dropped encrypted DMs.
- Meta plans a Side Chat option next that brings private, in-context AI help inside existing threads, and experts say secure cloud hardware can cut data exposure but also becomes a high‑value target regulators are likely to probe.