We've seen reports of social media umbrella Meta developing AI features for its products, one of them being WhatsApp. Initially, it's not exactly clear what this would actually entail for end users, if anything at all. More recently though, a report indicates that the messaging platform will be getting a generative AI chatbot, similar to competitors' models like Copilot or Gemini. And it may be known simply as Meta AI.
WABetaInfo reports that the feature has appeared in the WhatsApp beta for Android, specifically in the 2.24.7.14 update. Rather than being its own unique chatbox, Meta AI looks to live within the search bar. From the shared screenshot, it looks like you can perform the usual search as you normally do. Below it though is an additional option to 'Ask Meta AI' once the search bar is populated.In a sense, baking Meta AI into the WhatsApp search bar makes sense.
At any rate, it remains to be seen when, or indeed if, Meta AI gets rolled out to the general WhatsApp userbase. But considering more and more features found in beta are being rolled out for real, the former may be the more accurate question.