Get the message: is it time to hang up on WhatsApp?

The messaging platform's recent decision to force AI upon its users might just be the final straw

- Helen Coffey

A friend of mine doesn't use WhatsApp. I still remember the day I found out - principally because I was utterly flummoxed by the revelation.

"What do you mean?" I demanded. "How am I supposed to contact you?"

“Er… by text message?” she countered.

“But what if it’s an event and I’m inviting lots of people?”

“Just invite me separately.”

“But what if there’s a group chat I need to add you to?”

“You probably don’t need to.”

“But what if I need to do a poll??” (I was clutching at straws now.)

“I dunno, just send me the options?”

“But what if…” I trailed off. To be, honest, I had already run out of questions; the perceived stumbling blocks were actually pretty limited. Still, I could not get my head around this outlandishly contrary lifestyle choice. Now, there are signs that more of us could be joining her.

Having inveigled its way into the very fabric of our digital social lives, making itself seemingly “indispensable” in the process, WhatsApp perhaps thought it had earned carte blanche to do as it pleased. But the latest feature to be insidiously introduced by the Meta-owned app – a new AI button, quietly added to British users’ screens in recent weeks – is testing even its most ardent advocates.