> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.metatalks.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# WhatsApp tests a feature that lets users connect up to five outside AI agents
- URL: https://www.metatalks.ai/whatsapp-tests-outside-ai-agents-in-chats-without-end-to-end-encryption/
- Published: 2026-09-08T13:43:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-08T13:42:59.000Z
- Author: Al
- Tags: News, Agentic AI, Privacy, #newswire

**Eight months ago Meta barred ChatGPT from the app. This time the user lets the agent in, with a key of their own — and no end-to-end encryption.**

The feature tracker [WABetaInfo](https://wabetainfo.com/whatsapp-is-rolling-out-chats-with-third-party-agents/?ref=metatalks.ai) found it in an Android test build, switched on for a limited group of users in certain countries; a wider release is expected in the coming months, with no date for a global launch. WhatsApp's [Help Centre](https://faq.whatsapp.com/1002544104126998?ref=metatalks.ai) already describes chats with agents “created by you or others”, built with a developer's tools and connected by the user.

Conversations with those agents fall outside the encryption WhatsApp applies to everything else. Meta says the arrangement keeps agent conversations away from third parties with no connection to them, and that ordinary messages and calls between people on WhatsApp keep their full encryption.

Each agent lives in a one-to-one chat of its own: it sees only what is sent there, cannot reach other chats, contacts or media, and cannot be added to groups or communities. WhatsApp cautions that an agent's replies can be wrong.

The route Meta shut in January was the other one. It barred general-purpose AI assistants from the Business API, the channel companies pay to reach users, and ChatGPT, Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot left the app; OpenAI said more than 50 million people had used ChatGPT there.

In June the European Commission [ordered Meta](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn8qj8wjgxwo?ref=metatalks.ai) to restore free access for rival assistants within five working days, saying the ban appeared to abuse Meta's dominant position. Meta called the order “regulatory overreach” and said it would appeal; ChatGPT [returned on July 13](https://help.openai.com/en/articles/6825453-chatgpt-release-notes?ref=metatalks.ai), in the European Economic Area only.

Meta, meanwhile, has agents of its own: in June it launched a business agent that handles payments, bookings and sales across WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger.