• Some WhatsApp users can now use the Meta AI chatbot directly from WhatsApp.
• In the latest update for WhatsApp, the Search bar is now also a means to give the Meta AI prompts.
• Users in India first spotted it, but a wider worldwide rollout is expected in coming weeks.

Since the Metaverse never ended up being the Golden Goose that Meta once believed it was, the company quickly switched towards the other big tech buzz term, generative AI. Last year the company started working towards bringing its own “Meta AI” to its products and this week has started testing it out on WhatsApp.

Bringing its patented generative AI to the biggest chat app in the world is a pretty big deal, which is probably why the company is taking so long for testing. According to WaBetaInfo, it appears that the company is now exploring more ways for users of WhatsApp to engage with its AI.

The latest updates of WhatsApp on iOS and Android will now let some users experiment with additional generative AI features, other than the image generator that launched last year for the chat platform. Features are coming to WhatsApp accounts randomly in English-speaking countries.

It was first seen by Indian users on WhatsApp, but will likely roll out to more and more countries in the coming weeks.

Users can access the Meta AI chatbot through the search bar usually positioned at the top of the app window. Instead of just “Search” it now also says “Ask Meta AI.” This is similar to how Microsoft Copilot and Google Gemini have integrated their respective generative AI chatbots into apps.

Here you can give the Meta AI certain prompts, like asking it to generate images or for advice on topics like “How to avoid burnout” or five sources of protein from vegetables.

You can still search other chats like normal using the Search bar and find specific media or phrases from contacts. It is likely that this beta is a precursor for a wider and more complete rollout for Meta AI on WhatsApp.

With WhatsApp over two billion users worldwide, this would give the firm’s AI a huge jumpstart over the kind of beginnings seen by rival firms like Google. The company’s own model has shown solid results in the past, and Meta even announced a model specifically made for writing code, called Code Llama.

Expect Meta to continue its wider rollout of AI across its social media platforms and apps as the craze around the technology keeps growing more intense.

[Image – Photo by Alexander Shatov on Unsplash]