Meta introduces private Incognito Chat for WhatsApp users
The tech giant revealed the development at its LlamaCon conference in April 2025, aiming to address privacy concerns amid backlash over forced AI integration on Threads.
Meta is introducing an 'Incognito Chat' feature for WhatsApp that allows users to engage in private conversations with its Meta AI assistant. Built on the company's Private Processing technology, the feature utilises end-to-end encryption and a Trusted Execution Environment to ensure messages are processed in a secure cloud environment. Meta has confirmed that these interactions will not be saved and will not be used to train its AI models.
The feature was revealed at the company's LlamaCon generative AI conference in April 2025. Meta pitched the tool as a solution for sensitive topics such as health, finances, work, and personal issues. The company distinguished its approach from other applications that offer incognito modes but retain access to both sides of the conversation, stating that only the user can read the messages in this new mode.
WhatsApp head Will Cathcart indicated that while conversation history is not currently retained, an option to keep history may be developed in the future. The feature includes an optional, anonymised web search capability for up-to-date information, which is enabled by default but can be disabled by users. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated that the feature handles all AI inference in a secure cloud environment, ensuring messages remain inaccessible to the company.
The rollout of these features coincides with Meta's public testing of a Grok-style Meta AI chatbot feature on Threads. The announcement followed a backlash on Threads, where users expressed dissatisfaction with the forced integration of Meta AI and the inability to block the @meta.ai account. Meta is also developing a 'Side Chat' feature, which will allow users to privately query Meta AI about existing conversations.
The Incognito Chat function is currently available on both WhatsApp and the Meta AI app. Support for image processing and voice recognition is planned for future development of the text-only function. Meta has invited third-party audits and expert oversight to verify the security of the Private Processing technology, noting that reducing latency through optimised routing was critical to the feature's performance. The feature will be rolled out gradually to all users over the coming months.
