EU brings Meta to its knees: ChatGPT is running again in WhatsApp chat

After a months-long exclusion by the Facebook group Meta, the well-known AI chatbot ChatGPT has returned to WhatsApp. Strict intervention by the EU Commission has now cleared the way for European users again.

Return after EU intervention

Users in the European Union and the European Economic Area can now use ChatGPT directly within the WhatsApp messenger. The parent company Meta banned third-party AI assistants from its platform at the beginning of 2026. One interim order However, the EU Commission is now forcing the company to reopen the interfaces to competitors. The background to the dispute is the introduction of the company’s own software Meta AI. In order to position its own product on the market, Meta excluded competing chatbots from the programming interface for companies. The EU competition authorities saw this as an abuse of market power and initiated antitrust proceedings.

In the event of a violation, the group faces penalties of up to ten percent of its global annual turnover. To use the service, users must save the contact with the phone number +1 800-242-8478 in the address book. As developer OpenAI tells us, basic use does not require a separate user account. The bot answers text messages, processes voice recordings and can generate images. Anyone who links an existing account benefits from higher usage limits. The operation is exactly the same as in a regular chat with human contacts. The current decision by the European authorities is based on the Digital Markets Act. The set of rules is intended to ensure fair competition in the digital economy. Meta has already announced that it will take legal action against the EU Commission’s order. However, until a final legal clarification is reached, the programming interface will remain open to third-party providers such as OpenAI.

Privacy and security

When using it, users should keep the data protection regulations in mind. All entries are transmitted to the provider’s servers and linked to the respective telephone number. To prevent misuse, employees can temporarily check chat histories. Sensitive data such as passwords or health information should therefore not be shared via Messenger. Deleting chat histories within the app does not automatically remove the data from external servers. For users without a paid subscription, there are also daily limits on the number of requests. During intensive use, the system throttles the response speed.

The European version of the chatbot initially foregoes certain analysis functions in order to comply with the stricter requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Users can object to the training of the language models with their own data in the account settings at any time.