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TechRadar
TechRadar
Eric Hal Schwartz

Meta will ban rival AI chatbots from WhatsApp

Meta WhatsApp Meta AI OpenAI TechRadar
WhatsApp AI Assistant making recommendations.
  • Meta will ban all third-party general-purpose AI chatbots, such as ChatGPT and Perplexity, from WhatsApp in January
  • Users will be forced to migrate to other platforms unless they switch to Meta AI
  • The move is to reduce infrastructure strain, but it also gives more power to Meta's AI assistant and more data to the company

Meta is closing the door on third-party AI assistants inside WhatsApp. Starting January 15, 2026, no general-purpose AI chatbot, including ChatGPT, Perplexity, and others, will be allowed to operate on the platform. The change is part of an update to WhatsApp’s Business API policy that bans developers of “large language models, generative AI platforms, or general-purpose AI assistants” from accessing the system.

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