--- title: "WhatsApp Deploys AI, for Those Incapable of Comprehending Straightforward Messages From Their Friends and Family" description: "WhatsApp is now offering AI summaries of text threads for those too lazy to read through their messages themselves." date: "2025-06-26" modified: "2025-06-26" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/whatsapp-text-summary" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" tags: - "artificial intelligence" - "Meta" - "the digest" - "whatsapp" --- # WhatsApp Deploys AI, for Those Incapable of Comprehending Straightforward Messages From Their Friends and Family ![WhatsApp is now offering AI summaries of text threads for those too lazy to read through their messages themselves.]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* ## Summary Judgment WhatsApp is now offering AI summaries of text threads for those too lazy to read through their messages themselves. In a [press release](), the Meta-owned messaging app framed the new AI summarizing function as an optional feature that can help busy users keep up with their texts. "We've all been there — rushing between meetings, catching up after a flight without Wi-Fi, or simply having too many chats to catch up on," the WhatsApp press release reads. "Sometimes, you just need to quickly catch up on your messages." Because what says "I care" like breezing through an AI-generated summary of the family groupchat? ## Timeline Cleanse According to the statement, the new message summarizing feature will use Meta's so-called "[private processing]()" technology that purportedly lets the AI "generate a response without Meta or WhatsApp ever seeing your messages or the private summaries." Other people in your chats won't be able to see the summaries either, the company says. Though WhatsApp claims that users will the summarizing feature is optional and "off by default," WhatsApp's track record is a bit dodgy: as the [*BBC* reported]() back in April, WhatsApp peeved its users after they discovered that the blue "Meta AI" button at the bottom right corner of chats, which was supposed to be "optional only," could not be removed. Soon after that backlash, [WhatsApp confirmed to *Forbes*]() that users can indeed disable the AI functionality — but they have to do so chat-by-chat, and the irksome button itself would remain. **More on unwanted AI:** [*Microsoft Is Having an Incredibly Embarrassing Problem With Its AI*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()