No Apple Intelligence for WhatsApp & Co: speculation about meta-blocking
Meta pushes its own AI in WhatsApp, Apple Intelligence has to stay outside – also in Facebook, Instagram and Threads. But is this really a boycott?
(Image: Koshiro K/Shutterstock.com)
Why is Apple Intelligence not available in meta-apps such as WhatsApp? The media and users are currently speculating that the social media giant has deliberately blocked Apple's AI functions in its iPhone apps. The Apple Intelligence writing tools for text editing integrated into iOS are not available in WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, Facebook Messenger or Threads. In addition, stickers can no longer be inserted into Instagram stories via the iOS keyboard – and therefore no Apple AI-generated emojis (“Genmojis”).
The speculation was triggered by a Brazilian media report stating the absence of Apple's AI writing tools in the meta apps. Other reports speak of a sudden blockade, but this is hardly the case: WhatsApp, for example, has never supported Apple's writing tools, which have been available in some regions since last fall, until now.
Apple's writing tools only integrated in standard text views
The AI tool (Writing Tools) is normally available wherever text can be entered and edited in iOS, for example via the context menu for text editing. However, this requires apps to use Apple's standard text views (“UITextView or UITextField”). Apple's own text views, which are often used by messaging apps, must first be consciously integrated into Apple's writing tools. Meta has obviously not done this yet. Support for Apple Intelligence is also missing in other messengers such as Signal or Slack.
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Third-party developers are unlikely to place such integration in their text views very high on their priority list: Apple Intelligence runs purely on the very latest iPhones from iPhone 15 Pro upwards anyway and is reportedly only actively used by a manageable number of users, so demand is probably correspondingly limited. Other Apple Intelligence functions such as summarizing messages also work as usual with WhatsApp and the other Meta apps. Genmoji can also be easily sent as stickers in WhatsApp.
Apple and Meta on a collision course
The Meta apps are among the most downloaded iPhone apps. There has been deep animosity between Apple and Meta for years, and the companies are now direct competitors in the mixed reality market. According to a report, Apple considered integrating Meta AI into Apple Intelligence last year, but rejected it for data protection reasons. So far, only ChatGPT has been rudimentarily integrated into Apple Intelligence and Siri; Google Gemini could follow. Apple does not yet have a counterpart to the large chatbots.
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