Microsoft Copilot to exit WhatsApp on January 15 due to new Meta policy

Microsoft has announced that its AI chatbot, Copilot, will no longer be available on WhatsApp after January 15. After this date, users will not be able to interact with Copilot on WhatsApp unless they switch to Microsoft’s own Copilot mobile apps or access the chatbot through the web.

The company explained that removing Copilot from WhatsApp is necessary to comply with WhatsApp’s revised policies announced last month. At that time, the Meta-owned messaging platform stated that it would no longer support general-purpose AI chatbots using its WhatsApp Business API to serve customers. Instead, it aims to reserve these resources for other types of businesses.

This change does not prevent businesses from using AI to serve their customers, but it does mean that WhatsApp will no longer be a channel for distributing AI chatbots. This will affect companies like Microsoft, OpenAI, Perplexity, and others.

OpenAI had already announced its intent to close its WhatsApp integration in January.

Unfortunately, Copilot users on WhatsApp will find that their chat history isn’t preserved when they move to Microsoft’s platform, as access to the chatbot on WhatsApp was unauthenticated. Microsoft advises users who need to keep their conversations for future reference to export them using WhatsApp’s built-in tools before the January 15 deadline.