WhatsApp Begins Rolling Out Third-Party AI Agent Chats on iOS
WhatsApp is testing third-party agent chats on iPhone, allowing users to connect up to five external agents through API keys and interact with them directly inside WhatsApp.
WhatsApp is expanding its third-party agent capabilities to iOS, bringing the feature to a limited number of beta testers through WhatsApp beta for iOS 26.37.10.70.
The feature allows users to create up to five third-party agents from WhatsApp settings. Users can customise each agent with a name and profile photo, after which WhatsApp generates an API key that can be connected to the service where the agent is hosted. Once connected, users can chat with the agent directly inside WhatsApp.
These agents aren’t necessarily AI-powered; they can also be bots or other automated services operated by independent providers. WhatsApp’s official terms confirm that third-party agents are built and operated by external providers rather than WhatsApp itself.
There is an important privacy distinction: chats with third-party agents are not end-to-end encrypted. Messages are handled through a Meta service on behalf of the agent provider, and the provider may access messages sent to its agent. Agents can only access information users explicitly share in the conversation.
For businesses, marketers and creators, this could make WhatsApp a more accessible interface for specialised AI agents, automation and customer-facing services.