- ChatGPT and Copilot have announced they’ll leave WhatsApp in 2026
- The move is prompted by a change in WhatsApp’s terms of service
- That means you’ll be forced to use Meta AI if you want a WhatsApp chatbot
ChatGPT still leads the pack of the best AI tools, with rivals like Copilot not too far behind – and WhatsApp users have long been able to harness those chatbots within their messaging app. Unfortunately, Microsoft has now revealed that Copilot will be leaving WhatsApp due to a new policy from Meta, following a similar announcement from ChatGPT last month.
Conveniently, that leaves you with a single choice of AI bot within WhatsApp: Meta’s own Meta AI. And that’s likely to come as a big disappointment considering how unpopular this chatbot has proven to be, given you can’t remove it.
Why exactly are ChatGPT and Copilot leaving WhatsApp? It all comes down to a change in the terms of service for WhatsApp Business Solution, which will start taking effect on January 15, 2026.
When that happens, AI companies will be banned from using WhatsApp’s API for their own chatbots, meaning ChatGPT, Copilot and others will have to withdraw their products from the app (although both chatbots will remain in WhatsApp until that date).
Interestingly, the terms do not ban chatbots used for customer service or support, just those where the chatbot itself is the product – which is exactly what you get with ChatGPT and others.
A backwards step?
Back when the changes were first announced in October, a Meta spokesperson told TechCrunch that “The purpose of the WhatsApp Business API is to help businesses provide customer support and send relevant updates.”
An upshot of this, though, is that you’ll soon be forced to use Meta AI if you want to talk to an AI chatbot within WhatsApp. And that might not prove to be a popular option considering how poorly received Meta AI has been since it was first added to WhatsApp.
All it takes is a quick skim of Reddit to find countless threads decrying Meta AI and declaring it to be “the most useless and stupid thing I ever used.” When it becomes the only AI chatbot you can use within WhatsApp, those complaints are only going to grow louder.
While both ChatGPT and Copilot have announced they will be leaving WhatsApp when the ban comes into effect in January, other providers, such as Perplexity, have stayed silent.
Yet barring a change of heart from Meta, they’ll have to remove their own services come 2026, too. And with so much to gain from banning the competition, we can’t see Meta deviating from this course any time soon – unless it’s forced to.
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alexblake.techradar@gmail.com (Alex Blake)
