Meta AI WhatsApp: what it does, your data and can you remove it

Meta AI on WhatsApp is the AI assistant Meta has built into the app, and Meta began rolling it out to South African users in April 2024. You will see it as a coloured circle on the Chats tab, in the search bar and as @Meta AI in group chats. This guide explains what it does, what happens to what you tell it, and what you can and cannot switch off, based on WhatsApp’s own help centre.

Meta AI WhatsApp features in South Africa

According to WhatsApp’s help centre, Meta AI can:

• Chat and answer questions, give recommendations and help you come up with ideas.
• Join a group chat when someone mentions @Meta AI.
• Create and edit images, including AI images in a chat, profile pictures and call backgrounds.
• Explain what you share, such as a forwarded message, a photo or a video.
• Search the web for current answers. Web search is on by default, and you can turn it off.

WhatsApp says these features roll out gradually and vary by country. You can chat to Meta AI in any language, but in some markets access depends on the language your phone is set to. So a friend may see an option that you do not.

Meta AI is free, with limits on how many AI images and videos you can make. Meta began selling Meta One subscriptions with higher AI limits in May 2026, but MyBroadband reported in June 2026 that they were not yet available in South Africa. Do not confuse them with WhatsApp Plus, the R28.99 a month subscription that launched here in June 2026: it adds themes, custom icons and more pinned chats, not extra AI.

In May 2026 WhatsApp also announced Incognito Chat with Meta AI, a private mode in which Meta says it cannot see your prompts and the conversation disappears by default. It said the feature would roll out over the following months, so it may not be on your phone yet.

Is there an AI WhatsApp number?

Not for Meta AI: it is built in, so there is no number to save. The AI numbers people used to save have gone quiet in South Africa. WhatsApp changed its business terms to bar general-purpose AI assistants from its Business API from 15 January 2026. ChatGPT’s WhatsApp contact, 1-800-ChatGPT, left on that date, and so did Microsoft Copilot; Perplexity’s WhatsApp bot was caught by the same rule.

After an order from the European Commission, ChatGPT returned to WhatsApp on 13 July 2026, but only in the European Economic Area. We found no report of it returning in South Africa as at September 2026.

What WhatsApp still allows is a business using AI to answer its own customers on its own number. Eskom’s Alfred chatbot on 08600 37566 is a well-known local example.

Can you remove Meta AI from WhatsApp?

Not according to WhatsApp. Its help centre calls Meta AI an optional service, but it does not describe any setting that removes Meta AI or its button from the app. TechRadar reported in March 2025 that the Meta AI button could be switched off under Settings, then Chats. WhatsApp’s help centre does not document that switch, so it may not appear on your phone.

What the help centre does let you do:

1. Ignore it. Meta AI only sees messages that mention @Meta AI or that someone chooses to share with it.
2. Delete your chats with it. Open your chat with Meta AI, press and hold the chat you want to remove, then tap Delete chat. A deleted chat cannot be restored.
3. Delete Meta’s copy. Deleting a chat on your phone is not the same as deleting what Meta holds. In a chat with Meta AI, type /reset-ai to reset that chat, or /reset-all-ais to reset every individual and group chat you have had with Meta AI.
4. Block it in a chat or group. Turn on Advanced chat privacy in the contact or group info. People in that chat can then no longer ask Meta AI questions or request images or summaries there, and they cannot export the chat. In a group, only admins can switch it on.
5. Turn off web search. Meta AI searches the web by default, and you can switch that off.

What Meta does with your Meta AI chats

Your personal messages and calls stay end-to-end encrypted, so neither WhatsApp nor Meta can read them. The picture changes for anything you send to Meta AI:

• Meta receives it. Meta receives your prompts, the messages you share and your feedback, and says it may use them to improve its AI. It also receives information about your device and how you use Meta AI.
• Other Meta accounts may feed in. In some countries, Meta AI may use information from accounts you have added to Accounts Center, now being renamed Meta Account, such as Facebook or Instagram. Adding WhatsApp to Accounts Center is optional.
• Ads and recommendations. Since 16 December 2025, Meta has used conversations with Meta AI to personalise content and ads across its apps in most regions, leaving out sensitive topics such as health, religion, politics and sexual orientation. Reports at the time listed the UK, the EU and South Korea as excluded; South Africa was not on that list. Meta says that if your WhatsApp account is not in Accounts Center, your Meta AI chats on WhatsApp are not used to personalise your other Meta accounts.
• Third-party AI agents are different. WhatsApp says chats with outside AI agents that you connect to your account are handled by a Meta service for the agent and are not end-to-end encrypted.

A plain POPIA note

POPIA does not apply to purely personal or household activity, so asking Meta AI for a braai recipe is your own business. It does apply the moment a business uses it. If you or your staff paste a customer’s name, ID number, account details or medical information into Meta AI, your business is processing personal information and remains the responsible party.

POPIA then expects a lawful reason for that processing, reasonable security under section 19, and, if the information goes to a provider outside South Africa, compliance with section 72 on cross-border transfers. The simplest rule is to keep customer personal information out of consumer AI chats, or to strip out the identifying details first. Our guide to AI and POPIA covers the rest. This is general information, not legal advice.

Meta AI vs a business’s own WhatsApp chatbot

For a business, the difference matters. Meta AI cannot see your stock levels or your bookings, and you cannot control what it tells a customer. A chatbot on your own number can, and it can hand a conversation to a person. It is not free to run: from 1 October 2026 Meta charges businesses for service replies on the WhatsApp Business Platform, and MyBroadband reports the South African rate at about 12 cents a reply (US$0.0076).

If you are weighing one up, see how AI customer service on WhatsApp works, and Zaiq’s guide to choosing a WhatsApp chatbot in South Africa.