WhatsApp New Features – New AI Tools
Back in November 2023, Meta announced a WhatsApp AI chatbot inspired by Snapchat’s My AI. With AI being a part of almost all apps, Meta also seems to introduce more AI tools to its major platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Meta announced AI photo editing tools for Facebook and Instagram already back in December 2023. Now it’s time for WhatsApp to get AI photo editing tools, according to the latest WABetainfo report.
WhatsApp AI Chatbot and AI Stickers
Before the announcement of the WhatsApp AI chatbot, Meta announced one more AI feature that lets users create and share AI stickers. This feature allows users to generate personalized static and animated WhatsApp stickers using AI prompts. To generate AI stickers, go to a chat, tap on emoji, then stickers, and then tap on create. Type in the prompt and hit enter to generate the stickers. Up to 4 stickers can be generated at a time. This option was announced last year and made available to only a bunch of users living in the US. It’ll soon be made available for a wider audience as per the report.
WhatsApp AI Photo Editing Feature
With the positive feedback for the previously announced/tested WhatsApp AI tools, It appears that Meta is now exploring additional options to enhance the user experience by adding more AI tools and features to WhatsApp.
With one of WhatsApp new features, users will be able to edit their pictures on WhatsApp before they send them to their contacts and post them to their status. As you can see in the screenshot, you will get an extra green button on the left side of the “HD” button that adjusts the quality of the media you upload. Tapping this new button will open up three new photo editing options – Backdrop, Restyle, and Expand.
The Backdrop option will let you change the background of your images, the Restyle option will let you transform the style of your photos, and the Expand option will allow you to expand your images beyond the visible area. Currently, this feature is also in testing mode. Soon, it will be made available for beta testers.
WhatsApp “Ask Meta AI” Feature Enhancement (AI Chatbot)
Alongside this photo editing feature, Meta is also enhancing the “Ask Meta AI” feature for WhatsApp. You’ll be able to ask queries to meta AI using the search bar at the top section of the app directly instead of tapping on the special Chatbot AI shortcut. Having mentioned that back in November, Meta announced WhatsApp’s AI chatbot. In further updates, Meta added an option to hide the Chatbot shortcut from being displayed in the chat list.
Now in the latest WhatsApp beta version 2.24.7.14, users can access the Meta AI directly through the top search bar within WhatsApp. You also get some ready-made prompts suggested by the AI to get you started with the queries. You can tap the suggested queries and also type in your queries manually to interact with the AI.
Wrapping Up
In total, Meta announced/tested 3 WhatsApp AI tools as of now. We will have to see if the number goes up in the future. All these WhatsApp new features are still in the testing and beta stage. So, you may not be able to use them now. Some of these features are available only to selected users residing in the USA for now.
Gradually, they will be made available to the rest of the beta testers across the USA and then will be released for the beta testers outside the USA. Then eventually, you’ll be able to enjoy these WhatsApp AI features on your device. The official release dates of these features for the stable version of WhatsApp are unknown yet.
