Meta began rolling out Incognito Chat on WhatsApp on Wednesday, giving users a way to chat with its AI assistant in a private mode that Meta says keeps conversations out of reach, including from the company itself. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]
The feature uses Meta's private processing technology, which the company says handles messages in a secure environment. Meta said conversations are not saved and messages disappear by default. [1, 8, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]
Meta said the feature is designed for people who want to ask sensitive questions about health, finances, work or personal issues without sharing the context behind them with the company. Will Cathcart said, "We’re starting to ask a lot of meaningful questions about our lives with AI systems. It doesn’t always feel like you should have to share the information behind those questions with the companies that run those AI systems." [1, 8, 4, 5]
For now, Incognito Chat is text-only and does not support image uploads. Meta also said WhatsApp personal chats remain protected by end-to-end encryption. [1, 2, 4]
Several reports said the feature will also be available in the standalone Meta AI app, though some company reports focused mainly on WhatsApp as the launch surface. Meta said it is also working on Side Chat, a planned feature that would let users get private assistance within any WhatsApp chat. [1, 8, 2, 5, 7]
Meta first disclosed work on Incognito Chat at its LlamaCon generative AI conference in April 2025, according to Engadget. The company said the rollout will continue gradually over the next few months, and Side Chat is expected in the coming months. [5]
