If you chat with ChatGPT via WhatsApp, things are about to change. WhatsApp has just updated its terms to ban general-purpose AI chatbots like Perplexity and ChatGPT from Jan. 15, 2026. OpenAI has now responded to let users know what’s happening and what to do about it.
The clampdown will mean that if you’ve chatted with ChatGPT on WhatsApp in the past, you won’t be able to from early next year. WhatsApp’s new terms won’t prevent companies using AI within WhatsApp “for customer-support bots, provided the conversational AI is incidental to a broader business service. This means most standard enterprise bots will still be permitted,” NDTV reported on Oct.21.
A lot of people, it seems, have chatted to ChatGPT through the messaging app. “We’ve loved seeing more than 50 million of you chat, create, and learn with ChatGPT on WhatsApp. The simplicity and familiarity of messaging made it a natural home for everyday creativity and curiosity,” OpenAI, parent company of ChatGPT, said.
However, because of what OpenAI calls a policy and terms change, that won’t be possible much longer. “While we would have much preferred to continue serving you on WhatsApp, we are focused on making the transition as easy for all of our users as possible. You can keep your chats going in ChatGPT—available on iOS, Android, web, and ChatGPT Atlas on macOS—where you’ll find additional features like voice conversations, deep research, and file uploads,” the company said.
It also offered instructions on how to keep your conversation history.
Once you’ve downloaded the ChatGPT app and created a ChatGPT account and signed in, you can then link your account with WhatsApp “through 1-800-ChatGPT’s contact profile in WhatsApp and click the URL there,” the company said, recommending users link their account soon.
As you’ll see, OpenAI also recommended ChatGPT Atlas as another way to keep chatting in ChatGPT. This is the newly announced browser, which launched on Monday, Oct. 20 and which is currently available only on the Mac.
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