Microsoft's Copilot AI bot to exit WhatsApp in mid-January next year

In October 2025, WhatsApp, in a bid to encourage users to use the in-house Meta AI bot, discreetly revised the user policy by prohibiting rival AI providers from operating in its messenger app. It will take effect in mid-January 2026.

Last year, Meta introduced the propreitary generative Artificial Intelligence (gen AI)-based Meta AI in several of its products, including Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp Messenger.

But, rival brands such as OpenAI ChatGPT, Perplexity AI, Microsoft Copilot and others have outranked Meta AI in terms of usage on WhatsApp.

So, in October 2025, Meta, in a bid to encourage users to use the in-house Meta AI bot, discreetly revised the user policy by prohibiting rival AI providers from operating in WhatsApp Messenger app.

Now, Microsoft has formally announced that the Copilot AI feature on WhatsApp will be retired on January 15, 2026 same day when Meta's new policy takes effect.

"This change is due to recent updates to WhatsApp’s platform policies removing all LLM chatbots from the platform effective January 15th, and as a result, Copilot will be discontinued. We’re working to ensure a smooth transition for users and enable their continued Copilot access on mobile, web, and PC," said Microsoft.

The company has requested subscribers to install the standalone Copilot app on their devices. It is available in iOS, Android, and Windows PC versions on Apple App Store, Google Play and Windows Store, respectively.

Copilot runs on both OpenAI's ChatGPT and Microsoft's propreitary large language models to deliver responses to the user queries.

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