WhatsApp can now reframe your message with AI. How does this affect authentic communication?
WhatsApp has launched "Writing Help," an AI feature that lets users rephrase, proofread, or adjust the tone of their messages (professional, funny, supportive, etc.).
Yes, it can be helpful to better express yourself, but it also has many critics that the authenticity of our "ordinary" daily communication is fading even in such a "RAW" channel as WhatsApp.
How do you perceive the "AI helper" in a private chat?
My POV: From a business perspective, this makes sense. But in personal conversations? Not at all, it feels fake. Even when people comment on my posts using AI, it feels unnatural.
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WhatsApp’s AI message reframing can make your texts clearer and more polished. But it risks diluting personal voice, making communication feel less genuine. Users will need to balance AI assistance with authentic self expressions.
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@zack_nick How would you balance it?
That's a great topic and it actually relates to something we recently built in our product, I will explain...
Answering to your question: I think it all comes down to the context.
If I’m using WhatsApp to message my boss or a client, an AI could save me from sounding too unprofessional. In that professional context, I think it would be helpful. Actually with Uxia we have experimented with it. We recently added a new "Refine with AI" feature that allows you to correct and improve the text fields you complete when creating your tests. We have seen great adoption, as it helps users speed up the process of creating user tests even further (screen example below).
But in personal chats, I agree with the critics that it risks removing imperfections that make conversations authentic. WhatsApp typos and random icons are great imo.
Also, it might also create a trust gap: imagine sending a personal message and the other person wondering if it was you or an AI who wrote it...
Overall, I think: for personal communication/context NO, for professional communication/context YES.
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@borja_diazroig Also, I am pretty curious, how is it with the data, when AI can tweak the message accordingly?
WhatsApp has increasingly become a business-first platform, with fewer purely personal users. With many alternatives available, its new features are clearly aligned to business use cases. Because a large share of its growth in India and other Asian markets comes from small businesses, WhatsApp is building tools that help them scale quickly. This shift benefits SMBs and solopreneurs by enabling real-time customer communication. Tools like https://resultbull.ai
take this further with granular segmentation and automation that improve both communication and conversion.
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@resultbull is it your tool? What is the main benefit of it?
Great point @busmark_w_nika
It's not going to be easy to convince people that you aren't reading their messages. It takes 2 brain cells to detect a privacy breach these days.
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@sanskarix Thankfully, I do not have to solve this too much. I do not use WA :D
I understand the tone adjustments will have their niche uses, but I wonder if it will eventually enable auto replies or expand messages with AI assistance. In those instances, it will be interesting to see if it will learn and adopt a user's communication style, abbreviations, etc. to appear user-generated. Personally, it's a no for me, but I understand the business use cases.
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@tyler_wilmoth If things were automated that way, then what's the point of communicating via WA? Maybe we would get a verdict (summary) of a convo in email.
@busmark_w_nika It's a platform of choice for some, but you're right, if things were automated to such a degree, WA or not doesn't really matter. The summary would be nice to recap in case you encountered the other person again elsewhere. But, it would feel strange to receive a recap email of a casual conversation with a friend... that was fully automated!
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@tyler_wilmoth AI talking to AI :D