WhatsApp has started testing its long-promised Meta AI chatbot in multiple regions. Select users around the globe are able to access Meta’s ChatGPT rival based on its in-house Llama 2 open-source AI model. Currently, Meta AI in WhatsApp is accessible to users in Pakistan, India, Africa, and a few other regions on iOS, Android, and PCs.
This trial is exclusively available to users who have set their app language to English. The testing phase is still in its early stages, meaning not all eligible users have access to the Meta AI chatbot on WhatsApp.
Meta AI is integrated directly into WhatsApp, so users don’t need to open a separate menu to access the chatbot. It can be accessed through a search bar at the top as well as a Meta AI icon on the bottom right above the button to start new chats on Android. On iOS, this icon is found in the top right corner next to the camera icon. Here is what it looks like.
Tapping on Meta AI opens a chat menu with the AI and users are able to type in prompts through the text box at the bottom, just like ChatGPT. By default, the chatbot shows a variety of prompt examples such as “Tell me a scary story”, “How to avoid burnout”, “Imagine paradise”, and many more. Similar to Microsoft’s Copilot, Meta AI is also able to generate images in under a minute, but these are limited to a small resolution. These images can be downloaded and shared just like any other WhatsApp media.
Meta AI is available on WhatsApp Desktop as well, but the chat is called “AI Character”, for some reason. There is no separate search bar or a dedicated button to access it, but if users have a chat with the AI on their phones, it is accessible through the desktop version as well. The chat messages in this window are synced across devices too, just like any other WhatsApp chat.
It is unclear when Meta will roll out its chatbot to more regions, but it should not be long before that happens.
