WhatsApp users can soon chat with Meta AI through voice to edit, share photos

WhatsApp will soon allow users to talk to Meta AI, the AI chatbot of its parent company available across the suite of apps, through voice commands to perform custom tasks. Among them is the ability to edit and share photos with contacts, eliminating manual intervention involving sending textual prompts to Meta AI. The upcoming feature is part of Meta’s announcements at the recently held Meta Connect 2024.

“With these updates, you’ll be able to talk to Meta AI in real-time using your own voice and send photos and have it edit them,” said Meta co-founder and chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg during the event.

According to Zuckerberg, WhatsApp users will see a waveform button that they can press and hold to talk to Meta AI. They can then provide Meta AI with the required information, including requests to edit photos through AI and send the results with contacts. Edits can include addition, removal, and alteration of photos using AI. The capabilities also include the extraction of information from a photo. For instance, Meta AI users can click a photo of a menu in a foreign language and ask for translation into a familiar language.

Meta AI will also gain new voice options, offering more personalisation in the form of celebrity voices from around the globe. The AI chatbot will respond to questions in the voices of Awkwafina, Dame Judi Dench, John Cena, Keegan Michael Key, and Kristen Bell. The new celebrity voices will join the existing options that Meta launched last year in collaboration with Kendall Jenner, Snoop Dogg, and Tom Brady.

In addition to new Meta AI features, Mark Zuckerberg announced the launch of the company’s new smart glasses, called Orion. The new augmented reality (AR) glasses, codenamed Project Nazare, are claimed to be the company’s most advanced smart glasses. Meta’s Orion features large holographic displays that project 2D and 3D content and “experiences anywhere you want.”