Microsoft has announced that its Copilot AI chatbot will stop functioning on WhatsApp after January 15. After this date, WhatsApp users will need to switch to Microsoft’s Copilot mobile applications or access the chatbot through the web to continue using it.
The decision to withdraw Copilot from WhatsApp comes as a response to the messaging platform’s updated policies, which were introduced last month, according to Microsoft.
At that time, Meta, which owns WhatsApp, stated it would discontinue support for general-purpose AI chatbots using the WhatsApp Business API to interact with users. The company indicated these resources would instead be allocated to other business categories. While this update doesn’t prevent businesses from leveraging AI to assist their own clients, it does mean WhatsApp will no longer serve as a platform for distributing AI chatbots, affecting organizations such as Microsoft, OpenAI, Perplexity, and others.
OpenAI had previously revealed its intention to phase out its WhatsApp integration in January.
For those who have been using Copilot on WhatsApp, chat records won’t be transferred to Microsoft’s platform, as the WhatsApp version of the chatbot did not require authentication. Microsoft advises users who wish to keep their conversation history to export their chats using WhatsApp’s native export feature before January 15.
