WhatsApp has begun rolling out a new feature called ‘Writing Help’, which uses Meta AI to assist people in drafting and refining their messages. The tool is designed to give users alternative versions of what they write, offering options in different tones like professional, supportive, humorous, or polished for grammar and clarity. According to the company, the feature is first becoming available in English for users in the United States and several other countries, with plans to expand to more regions and languages later this year.
The functionality integrates directly into the app’s chat interface. Once a user starts typing in a personal or group chat, a small pencil icon appears beside the text box. Tapping it activates Writing Help, which then generates rewritten versions of the draft. These can be customized to sound professional, lighthearted, supportive, or simply more polished and grammatically correct. Users can choose one of the suggestions, modify it further, or ignore them entirely and stick with their own wording. Importantly, recipients have no way of knowing whether a message has been refined with AI.
The messaging platform, which once faced major backlash over its controversial privacy policy, has highlighted that privacy is at the core of this rollout. The social media behemoth claims that Writing Help relies on the company’s Private Processing technology, which ensures that neither WhatsApp nor Meta can read or store the original messages or the AI’s suggested alternatives. All processing is done securely, with texts encrypted and anonymized before being handled by the system. The company has also brought in independent security firms (including NCC Group and Trail of Bits) to audit the system and verify its protections.
The firm also clarified that, like other recent WhatsApp updates, Writing Help is an optional tool. It is turned off by default, and users who want to access it will need to enable the feature manually through their app settings.
Meanwhile, the introduction of Writing Help comes along with other recent experiments with AI inside WhatsApp, including Message Summaries, which shorten long chats into easy-to-read overviews. But despite all such advancements, Meta still faces criticism and challenges. The company recently came under fire after reports claimed its AI had inappropriate chats with users, including minors, and it is also battling a major antitrust case from the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over its acquisitions of WhatsApp and Instagram. Also, recently, WhatsApp has come under scrutiny in Russia, where authorities reportedly restricted its voice and video calls over alleged violations of national laws.
