WhatsApp is permitting AI suppliers to proceed providing their chatbots to customers with Brazilian cellphone numbers, days after the nation’s competitors regulator ordered the corporate to droop its new coverage that bars third-party, general-purpose chatbots from being supplied on the app by way of its enterprise API.
Beneath the brand new coverage, the corporate is offering a 90-day grace interval beginning January 15 to builders and AI suppliers, mandating them to stop responding to consumer queries on the chat app, and notify customers that their chatbots received’t work on WhatsApp.
Now, Meta advised builders that they don’t should notify customers with Brazilian cellphone numbers (with code +55) of any adjustments or stop providing their companies, per a discover to AI suppliers seen by TechCrunch.
“The requirement to stop responding to consumer queries and implement pre-approved auto-reply language (talked about beneath) earlier than January 15, 2026, now not applies when messaging individuals with a Brazil nation code (+55),” the discover reads.
WhatsApp didn’t instantly reply to a question searching for to substantiate the choice.
The coverage, which goes into effect from today, impacts general-purpose chatbots like ChatGPT and Grok on the platform. Notably, the coverage doesn’t cease companies from offering customer support by way of bots inside WhatsApp to their prospects.
In its discover, Brazil’s competitors company mentioned it could examine if Meta’s phrases are exclusionary to rivals and unduly favor Meta AI, the corporate’s chatbot that’s supplied on WhatsApp.
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Meta has beforehand supplied the same exemption to customers in Italy after the country’s competition agency took issue with the policy in December. Individually, the EU has additionally opened an antitrust investigation into the new rules.
The corporate has constantly maintained that AI chatbots are straining its methods that had been designed for various makes use of of its enterprise API. Meta has even mentioned prior to now that individuals who need to use totally different chatbots can achieve this exterior WhatsApp.
“These claims are essentially flawed,” a WhatsApp spokesperson mentioned in response to CADE’s probe on Tuesday. “The emergence of AI chatbots on our Enterprise API put a pressure on our methods that they weren’t designed to help. This logic assumes WhatsApp is someway a de facto app retailer. The path to marketplace for AI corporations is the app shops themselves, their web sites and trade partnerships; not the WhatsApp Enterprise Platform.”
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