Meta Aims to Convince Users to Confide in AI: Incognito Mode Coming to WhatsApp

Meta has announced a new feature for WhatsApp that will allow users to start private conversations with the Meta AI chatbot. The feature, called incognito mode, has been designed to offer a higher level of privacy compared to regular interactions with the virtual assistant.

Users will be able to activate a private session by tapping a new icon available in individual chats with Meta AI. The same functionality will also be available in the standalone Meta AI app. The rollout is expected to happen gradually over the coming months, both on WhatsApp and the dedicated app.

Conversations initiated in this mode will not be saved. Messages will be automatically deleted when the chat is closed, and the session will also end when the user locks their smartphone or exits the application. At that point, Meta AI will completely lose the context of the just-concluded conversation.

What does WhatsApp's product vice president say about this new feature? According to Alice Newton-Rex, WhatsApp's product vice president, more and more people are relying on artificial intelligence to address particularly personal topics, such as financial issues, health concerns, or advice on how to respond to delicate messages received from friends and colleagues. For this reason, Meta believes it is essential to provide a tool that allows users to ask these questions in the most private way possible.

The new mode leverages the private processing infrastructure that WhatsApp introduced last year to integrate AI features without compromising end-to-end encryption. Previously, this architecture had been used for tools like automatic message summaries, based on lighter models.

For incognito chats, however, Meta uses the Muse Spark model, unveiled last month. The company is also developing Side Chat, a feature that will allow users to query Meta AI directly within group conversations without making the requests visible to other participants.