Microsoft's Copilot and other AI chatbots must leave WhatsApp in early 2026

Microsoft's AI chatbot Copilot is not only available in the browser or via app on smartphones, but since the end of 2024 also in WhatsApp. However, this will end in mid-January next year. Meta Platforms recently updated WhatsApp's business terms of service, prohibiting the integration of third-party AI offerings from January 15, 2026. External AI chatbots will thus be removed from the messaging service, with only the company's own Meta AI remaining.

Similar to how Microsoft offers a Copilot bot for Telegram Messenger, it also offers one for WhatsApp, essentially an AI assistant within the messaging app. Third-party providers use WhatsApp's business APIs for this. However, these are primarily intended for customer service via WhatsApp, one of the messenger's revenue streams, and not for general AI chatbots. But external AI providers have apparently been using the programming interfaces increasingly for this purpose lately, putting increasing strain on Meta's systems. That's why the WhatsApp operator is pulling the plug.

External AI chatbots strictly forbidden in WhatsApp

In the WhatsApp Business Terms of Service, updated at the end of October, providers of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, such as large language models and AI assistants, are "strictly prohibited from accessing or using the WhatsApp Business Solution directly or indirectly to provide, deliver, offer, sell, or otherwise make available such technologies." If third-party providers continue to use the APIs for AI, Meta threatens to revoke access and terminate the account.

Microsoft reminds its Copilot users who use the AI assistant in WhatsApp of this again this week, while also pointing to alternatives. Copilot will continue to be available as an app for iOS and Android, as well as via the internet browser. However, WhatsApp users should back up their chat histories with the Copilot bot before mid-January next year if they want to keep them.

The only AI assistant within WhatsApp from that point on will be Meta's own chatbot. The data company presented Meta AI alongside the image generator named Emu about two years ago. However, this AI chatbot is not well-received by all WhatsApp users; many want to get rid of the blue-bordered ring on the home screen. WhatsApp does not allow this, but there is at least a WhatsApp function for disabling AI in chats. This allows users to block AI from individual and group chats so that participants in a chat cannot enable the AI.

(fds)