WhatsApp’s “Writing Help” tool can advise you sound more professional, funnier, or supportive. It can also rephrase things and suggest better ways to get your message across. If you’ve used the Writing Help on Instagram, this might look familiar.
Writing Help is the second major AI-powered feature that Meta has added to WhatsApp in recent months. It rolled out Message Summaries in June this year, enabling Meta AI to summarize unread messages in a group chat.
On WhatsApp, you can summon the tool in 1:1 and group chats by tapping a new pencil icon on your keyboard. At launch, the feature supports English and is available in the US and a few other countries. “We hope to bring it to other languages and countries later this year,” Meta says.
While the announcement post doesn’t mention it, an attached image suggests WhatsApp taps into Meta AI for the rewrites. However, Meta says it doesn’t view your messages to refine them.
The responses are generated using Meta’s Private Processing technology, which handles “messages off-device in a confidential and secure environment where no one, not even Meta or WhatsApp, can read or access your personal messages. After Private Processing finishes responding to your request, the messages aren’t stored,” Meta explains on its support page.
By default, Private Processing is disabled on WhatsApp. To use Writing Help, you’ll need to enable it by going to Settings > Chat > Private Processing.
Most Android phones – especially mid-range models – don’t offer iPhone-like Writing Tools. By baking the feature directly into WhatsApp, Meta makes it accessible to millions of users – irrespective of the phone they use.
Given Meta’s push to integrate Meta AI into WhatsApp, you can expect more AI-powered features to make their way into the messaging app in the future.
