This is what the new blue circle in your WhatsApp means (and what you can do with it)

Have you recently noticed a blue circle at the bottom of your WhatsApp inbox? That means you can now use the Meta AI chatbot. Just click it, and you'll have your own AI assistant. But is it safe to use it? And is it true that this allows Meta to read all your conversations?

Although the feature has been available since September 2024, it wasn't rolled out in the Netherlands until August 2025. The chatbot now also has the option to speak Dutch. You might not see a blue circle at the bottom of your conversations yet, as the feature is being rolled out gradually. If you don't see the circle yet, that will change soon.

You might already be familiar with chatbots like Gemini, ChatGPT, or Claude. Meta AI is similar to these. The only difference is that Meta AI is integrated into WhatsApp, while the other chatbots aren't. Simply put, it's a search engine you can talk to. You can look up information, but also ask for advice, whether that's about your work or your personal life. You can also have the chatbot create summaries or write texts. It's important to keep in mind that all answers the chatbot provides are AI-generated and therefore not necessarily accurate.

Since the arrival of Meta AI, there's been a bit of panic: people are afraid the chatbot has access to all their WhatsApp conversations and can read everything they send. However, that's not the case. Only the messages you share with the chatbot are read, and messages you send to someone else can also be read if you type "@MetaAI" in the conversation with that person. In that case, the chatbot responds based on the message you tag it with. It can't read the rest of the conversation because your WhatsApp conversations are end-to-end encrypted.

This means no one outside the chat can read, listen to, or share them. It's important to remember that your conversation with Meta AI itself isn't end-to-end encrypted. These messages can be viewed and used to train their AI models. For this reason, WhatsApp also recommends against sharing sensitive information, whether about yourself or others.

Don't want to have anything to do with Meta AI? Then it's important not to "activate" it by pressing the blue button. Unfortunately, you can't turn the blue button off, but you can block its use in (group) chats. To do this, you'll need to enable advanced privacy for chats, which you have to do on a per-chat basis.

To do this, follow these steps:

• Open a chat in WhatsApp.
• Tap the name of the contact or group app.
• Scroll down until you see 'advanced chat privacy' or 'advanced chat privacy' and check it.
• Turning this feature on will also prevent you from exporting chat history or automatically saving photos and videos to your phone.

Parkinson's for beginners: 'It's terrible when someone grabs my arm to get off the sidewalk'

Polyfamily, a multiple love adventure with 'who in which bed' according to a strict schedule

'Dirty Jack' causes rift in showbiz marriage, but who is he really?