Meta has rolled out a new artificial intelligence feature for WhatsApp designed to help users stay on top of their messages—without reading every word.
The new tool, called Message Summaries, uses Meta AI to generate short, bullet-point summaries of unread messages, allowing users to quickly catch up on conversations at a glance.
"Sometimes, you just need to quickly catch up on your messages," WhatsApp said in a blog post on Wednesday. "That’s why we’re excited to introduce Message Summaries, a new option that uses Meta AI to privately and quickly summarize unread messages in a chat, so you can get an idea of what is happening before reading the details.”
According to Meta, the feature uses a privacy-focused method called Private Processing technology, which ensures that summaries are generated locally and that message senders are not notified when their messages have been summarized.
Initially, the feature is being rolled out to English-speaking users in the United States, with plans to expand to additional countries and languages later in the year.
Message Summaries are part of Meta's broader push to integrate AI tools across its platforms, following the launch of its AI chatbot on Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
Speaking at Stripe’s annual conference last month, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg suggested that AI companions could play an emotional support role for users.
“I think people are going to want a system that knows them well and understands them, similar to how their feed algorithms do,” Zuckerberg said during an interview with Stripe co-founder John Collison. “For people who don’t have access to a therapist, I think everyone will have an AI.”
However, the rise of AI chatbots has also sparked concern among mental health professionals. Some researchers warn that users may form unhealthy attachments or misunderstand AI-generated responses.
Søren Dinesen Østergaard, a professor of psychiatry at Aarhus University in Denmark, has warned of what he calls “chatbot psychosis.” In an editorial for the Schizophrenia Bulletin, Østergaard explained that individuals with mental health conditions may misinterpret chatbot responses, potentially leading to harmful consequences.
“Depending on the questions asked, generative AI chatbots may provide information that is wrong or misunderstood by someone with mental illness who then does not seek appropriate help,” he wrote. “I am convinced that individuals prone to psychosis will experience, or are already experiencing, analog delusions while interacting with generative AI chatbots.”