WhatsApp Adds Per-Chat Advanced Chat Privacy to Limit Meta AI in Threads

Overview

• WhatsApp introduced an Advanced Chat Privacy toggle that disables calling "@Meta AI" in a chosen conversation, and it works in both private and group chats where any participant can turn it on.
• When enabled, the mode stops shared photos and videos from auto-saving to device galleries and blocks chat export, with a notice shown to everyone in the thread.
• The control only covers the specific chat where it is switched on and it is off by default, so the AI assistant remains accessible elsewhere in the app.
• WhatsApp says personal messages stay end-to-end encrypted and personal account details are not shared with Meta AI unless a user sends content to the assistant.
• Privacy reports call the protection limited because screenshots and forwards still work and because Meta continues to collect metadata such as names, last-seen timestamps, and IP addresses.