- Meta has added a new AI-powered Writing Help feature to WhatsApp
- The tool can rephrase your text or proofread it for errors
- It’s opt-in, so you’ll need to enable it before you can use it
These days it seems that every app is incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) in some way, and WhatsApp is rolling out a new AI feature that could help improve your messages and enable you to say exactly what you want to say.
Meta announced the new Writing Help feature in a blog post. It uses AI to suggest different ways you could phrase a drafted sentence, with options to simply proofread or rephrase the text, or to spruce it up in a more professional, humorous, or supportive manner.
Meta says this AI helper is built upon its Private Processing tech. This is a cloud service that encrypts your requests, meaning neither Meta nor WhatsApp can read them. Meta says it only uses data “that’s useful for processing the user’s request.” Once your query has been answered, it’s no longer stored on Meta’s servers. Meta doesn’t say whether your messages are used to train its AI, though.
How to use Writing Help
The feature isn’t available everywhere yet, as Meta says it’s rolling it out starting in the US and “several other countries” with more coming “later this year”. It’s also opt-in, so you’ll need to enable it first. To do so, open WhatsApp, tap Settings > Chats > Private Processing, then enable the Private Processing feature – if you don’t see this option then it’s not available in your region yet.
To use Writing Help, you’ll first need to open a thread and draft a message in its text box. Once you’ve done that, you should see the sticker icon in the chat bar transform into a pencil. Tap this, then choose a writing option or style from the bottom of the app. If you’ve chosen to rephrase your text, you’ll see a range of different choices – tap one to have it replace your original draft text.
Note that you don’t have to just stick with whatever WhatsApp has suggested, as you can subsequently edit the new text and make further refinements before sending it.
If you do decide to enable Private Processing – and, with it, Writing Help – you might find it’s a useful way to get across the meaning of what you want to say when you can’t quite think of the right words. That might help prevent a rash of awkward conversations where your meaning is misunderstood or misinterpreted.
