Meta is kicking ChatGPT and Copilot out of WhatsApp (www.techradar.com)

OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Microsoft’s Copilot have announced they will leave WhatsApp in 2026 after Meta changed the WhatsApp Business Solution terms of service. The new rules, effective January 15, 2026, bar companies from using WhatsApp’s API to offer chatbots where the bot itself is the product; bots used purely for customer support and business messaging remain allowed. Both chatbots will stay in-app until the deadline, but must withdraw unless Meta revises the policy. Other providers (e.g., Perplexity) have been quiet, but would be subject to the same restriction. For the AI/ML community this is a meaningful platform-control move: it forces consumer-facing conversational AI out of a major messaging channel and consolidates in-app chatbot availability to Meta’s own Meta AI, reducing distribution options and third-party reach. Technically, it severs an integration channel for models and hosted agents that relied on WhatsApp’s Business API, forcing vendors to migrate users to other messaging platforms or host interactions via web/embedded clients. The change raises competitive and ecosystem concerns (developer distribution, user choice, model access) and could reshape product strategies for chat-focused AI providers and businesses that used third-party bots in WhatsApp workflows.