Get ready to catch up on your chats faster than ever! Meta is rolling out a brand-new WhatsApp update that introduces an AI summaries feature, specifically designed to help you quickly digest those long message threads. This cool new addition, officially named Message Summaries, was announced on June 25, 2025 via the WhatsApp company blog. It’s a smart way for Meta AI WhatsApp to give you brief, bulleted lists that highlight the key points from any message chain right within the app. What’s particularly interesting is that this feature is built using Meta’s special Private Processing technology, meaning these summaries are generated privately for you, with absolutely none of your message content or the summaries themselves being shared with Meta or WhatsApp. Talk about WhatsApp privacy!
How to Use This Smart New Feature
Wondering how to use WhatsApp Message Summaries? It’s pretty straightforward. You’ll spot the Message Summaries icon WhatsApp right at the top of your message chains. It’s usually a small, rectangular symbol that also shows the number of Message Summaries unread messages in that particular chat. Just give that icon a tap, and Meta AI will quickly whip up a bulleted list of the main takeaways from the messages.
This feature is truly intended to be a time-saver. Imagine you’re rushing between meetings or just quickly checking your phone – instead of scrolling through dozens of messages, these WhatsApp AI-powered message summaries provide instant updates, letting you know what’s been happening at a glance. Interestingly, Apple introduced a similar AI-powered text-summarization feature last October as part of their Apple Intelligence software, so it seems this kind of AI assistance is a growing trend across tech.
Privacy &Availability
Meta‘s ongoing push to integrate Meta AI WhatsApp – already considered the world’s most popular messaging app – is part of a larger industry shift towards making AI accessible in our everyday tools. In fact, just earlier this month, OpenAI announced that their image-generating AI can also be accessed directly via WhatsApp. This drive for integration, however, hasn’t been without its bumps. When Meta AI was first integrated with WhatsApp in September 2023, it initially caused some backlash over WhatsApp privacy concerns, prompting Meta to introduce new “Advanced Chat Privacy” settings in April. The good news is that the Message Summaries feature is entirely optional for users and is turned off by default.
To activate it, simply open your WhatsApp account, head over to Settings, then Chats, and finally tap on Private Processing to toggle it on. You also get granular control: you can use the Advanced Chat Privacy settings to select which specific chats you’d like Meta AI to be able to access (or not).
Currently, this cool new WhatsApp features rollout for Message Summaries is happening in English across the US. However, Meta mentioned in their blog post that they’re hoping to expand this functionality to more languages and countries later this year. So, if you’re not in the US, keep an eye out for it!
