WhatsApp's New AI Feature Summarises Chats. Here's How It Works

WhatsApp has introduced a new feature that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to summarise unread personal chats. The Meta-owned platform says the feature will help users when they are on the run or when too many chats may have piled up. By simply tapping the unread messages button in the chat, Meta AI will generate a bulleted summary of what a user may have missed.

The feature is currently being rolled out in the US with plans to launch in more countries and languages later this year.

"We're excited to introduce Message Summaries, a new option that uses Meta AI to privately and quickly summarise unread messages in a chat, so you can get an idea of what is happening, before reading the details in your unread messages," WhatsApp said in its official release.

How does it work?

• Using Private Processing Technology, Meta AI is able to generate a response.
• Meta or WhatsApp do not see a user's messages or the private summaries.
• Since the message summary feature is optional, it is off by default.
• The user can choose whether or not to use them.
• Additionally, the Advanced Chat Privacy feature can be used to select which chats can be shared for AI features.

Over the last year, Meta has introduced several AI-enabled features in WhatsApp, including directly using Meta AI to ask questions in a chat, along with a feature that produces images in real time.

What is Private Processing Technology?

The Private Processing Technology is a confidential computing infrastructure, built to make it possible for people to direct AI to process their requests, such as summarising unread WhatsApp threads or getting writing suggestions.

As per Meta, Private Processing creates a "secure cloud environment where AI models can analyse and process data without exposing it to unauthorised parties".

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WhatsApp getting ads

Earlier this month, WhatsApp announced that it was rolling out advertisements inside the Updates tab of the app. Akin to Instagram, where users see ads after a few stories, WhatsApp users will be served ads in a similar fashion. The company will be using user data such as country/city, language and the channels they are following to push the ads.

Apart from placing ads in status stories, WhatsApp will also be earning through Channel subscriptions and Channel promotion. The company said these subscription payments will be facilitated by app stores.