WhatsApp Gives Microsoft, OpenAI, Perplexity The Boot

Microsoft has announced that access to Copilot via WhatsApp will end
on January 15, 2026.

Meta Platforms, parent company of WhatsApp, will prohibit the use of general purpose AI chatbots — including OpenAI’s ChatGPT, and Perplexity AI — through its app.

This move is part of a broader strategy by Meta to assert greater control over the AI services operating in its environment. It plans to focus on its own first-party AI, Meta AI — and to reserve
the APIs for other types of businesses such as those that build specialized customer service workflows, rather than hosting third-party general AI assistants.

Meta’s existing Business API did
not have a pricing model that effectively monetized the open-ended interactions of the general-purpose AI chats.

These third-party bots were using significant system resources without
contributing proportionally to Meta’s revenue, disrupting the platform’s pay-per-message model.

Users who want to continue using these services must transition to the respective stand-alone
mobile apps or websites such as Copilot and ChatGPT.

Other general-purpose AI chatbots such as Luzia also have been affected by the new restrictions.

Microsoft explained in a blog post
that users will not have the ability to transfer their WhatsApp chat history to the Copilot app or website.

Since access to Copilot on WhatsApp is unauthenticated, Copilot cannot transfer the
chat history on other Copilot platforms. Conversations must be exported prior to…