Meta is rolling out a new “incognito” mode for its Meta AI chatbot on WhatsApp, designed to ensure user conversations remain secure, private, and entirely ephemeral. The update, announced Wednesday, allows users to interact with the AI without their queries being saved or accessible to anyone else.
How the New Privacy Feature Works
Users can initiate an incognito session by selecting a new icon within one-on-one chats with Meta AI. Once enabled, the session operates in a secure environment where messages disappear by default as soon as the chat is closed. Furthermore, Meta confirmed that if a user locks their phone or exits the application, the session terminates immediately, and the AI discards all context from that specific interaction.
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Prioritizing Sensitive User Data
The push for enhanced privacy comes as individuals increasingly rely on AI for sensitive tasks, ranging from financial and medical queries to drafting delicate communications. Alice Newton-Rex, VP of Product at WhatsApp, emphasized the necessity of this feature: “We think it’s really important to give people the ability to ask these questions as privately as possible.”
This privacy-first approach leverages Meta’s dedicated processing infrastructure, which was developed to support AI features without breaking end-to-end encryption. While earlier AI features utilized smaller models, this incognito mode is powered by Meta’s latest Muse Spark model, released last month.
Future Roadmap: Side Chat and Industry Context
Meta is already developing “Side Chat,” a follow-up feature that will allow users to query Meta AI within group or individual chats privately, without exposing the AI interaction to other participants. Currently, querying the AI within a chat requires tagging, which makes the interaction visible to everyone present.
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The broader industry is also shifting toward privacy-centric AI, with competitors like ChatGPT, Claude, DuckDuckGo, and Proton implementing similar incognito or private-first models. This transition is timely, as recent legal discussions have highlighted concerns regarding how conversations with AI chatbots could potentially be used in litigation.
The new incognito capability is scheduled to reach WhatsApp and the standalone Meta AI app over the coming months.