Meta is no longer at the forefront of the AI space, but it’s managing to use its massive distribution to push its products among users.
WhatsApp has decided to block all third-party AI bots from its platform. Meta has updated its WhatsApp Business API policy to this effect. The changes come into force on 15th January 2026. This means that starting January next year, WhatsApp users will only be able to use Meta AI on the platform as opposed to the OpenAI, Perplexity and other bots that they can currently access.
Meta added a new section to its API terms specifically targeting “AI providers”, which it defines broadly to include large language models and general-purpose AI assistants. The updated terms state that AI technologies cannot use the WhatsApp Business Solution if the chatbot itself is the main service being offered, a decision Meta says aligns with WhatsApp’s original design as a business-to-customer communication tool.
The policy won’t affect businesses that use AI in limited ways, such as travel companies or e-commerce brands, but will target AI startups that have been using WhatsApp to bring their AI assistants directly to consumers. Companies including Perplexity, OpenAI, Luzia, and Poke operated their AI bots on WhatsApp, and they will have to cease services on the platform.
OpenAI today reacted to the change. “Meta changed its policies so 1-800-ChatGPT won’t work on WhatsApp after Jan 15, 2026. Luckily we have an app, website, and browser you can use instead to access ChatGPT,” it posted on X.
Meta’s move to block competing AI bots comes after the company has appeared to fall behind in the AI race after a strong start with its Llama models. Llama 4, however, was widely regarded as a failure, and saw Meta’s AI offerings be eclipsed by better products from Chinese AI labs and frontier labs including Google DeepMind, OpenAI, Anthropic and Grok. In recent months, Meta has aggressively poached top researchers from these labs in a bid to bring its AI program up to speed, but has little to show for it so far.
And blocking other AI bots on WhatsApp shows the challenges with centralization of tech platforms. WhatsApp is the biggest messenger in the world, and its users will natively only be able to use Meta’s own AI assistant, as opposed to having a choice of using assistants from many different companies. It remains to be seen if Meta’s own native AI solution can eventually become world-class, but starting January next year, WhatsApp users will have no choice but to use Meta AI as an AI assistant within the platform.