There is a new button on WhatsApp that appears as a light blue circle just above the button to start a new chat. A tap opens a conversation with Meta AI, which is the artificial intelligence-based chatbot that enables natural interaction to access various features such as generating text, answering wide-ranging questions or creating various content. In addition to WhatsApp, the chatbot is gradually affecting the entire Meta ecosystem so also Messenger and Instagram. Here’s how it works and how you can make the most of it.
How does the new Meta AI button on WhatsApp work?
The new button on WhatsApp is immediately links back to chat with the Meta AI assistant, which is based on the large proprietary and open source language model Llama 3.2. As was the case with ChatGPT when it first arrived on WhatsApp, Meta AI opens up a reduced range of functionality, but it gravitates around tasks that could come in handy in everyday use, for example, context-consistent text generation and corrections for drafting sentences and paragraphs behind topic and style cues or correcting a ready-made text. Or, one can search the web for information by following precise questions. Or one can ask for advice to plan a trip, for example, or to reorganise ideas on a project. You can retrieve Meta AI within a group chat by mentioning it with the snail (“@meta ai”), and likewise you can find it in the list of personal contacts via the appropriate search field.
How do I remove the new Meta AI WhatsApp button?
The new WhatsApp button is making a lot of discussion both positive and negative, as on the one hand it finds many admirers who appreciate the presence of an integrated AI chatbot, while on the other hand there are those who just can’t stand that blue-blue-fuchsia little circle that appeared on the platform. How to remove Meta AI from one’s WhatsApp and return to the messaging app of days gone by without the cumbersome presence of the home-grown solution based on the large Llama 3.5 language model? The first idea that comes to mind is to hold down on the new little circle, now present just above the button to open a new chat. But there are no window menus. Same goes for the three dots of options within the chatbot conversation: there is no lock button, at best you delete the chat, but not the button. You can’t even switch to the previous version of WhatsApp, because Meta AI comes back on board anyway.