ChatGPT Returns to WhatsApp After EU Forces Meta to Reopen Business API to Rival AI Bots
ChatGPT has started working again inside WhatsApp (owned by Meta, recognized as extremist and banned in Russia) for a portion of home users. The development suggests that European regulators have succeeded in pushing Meta to reopen access to competing AI chatbots after the company previously restricted them.
OpenAI first introduced ChatGPT to WhatsApp in 2024. Users could interact with the neural network simply by messaging it as an ordinary contact, without installing a separate application or performing additional configuration steps.
Subsequently, Meta aggressively promoted its own AI assistant across WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram (all owned by Meta, recognized as extremist and banned in Russia). In 2025 the company revised the terms of its Business API, introducing new conditions that effectively prohibited third-party companies from distributing universal chatbots through the platform. As a result, ChatGPT and other competing services were quickly excluded.
The European Union did not accept this market clearance. The European Commission launched an antitrust investigation, suspecting that Meta was leveraging the dominant position of WhatsApp to favor its own artificial intelligence. The company was ultimately required to once again grant competing chatbots access to the Business API.
According to Tweakers, ChatGPT is now responding inside WhatsApp again. However, availability remains limited: some users can add the bot and communicate normally, while others see the contact appear but receive no replies. Access does not require a paid ChatGPT subscription.
The uneven rollout may indicate that OpenAI is restoring the integration gradually and is currently testing it in selected regions. Meta and OpenAI have not officially confirmed any connection between the return of ChatGPT and the European Union’s decision.
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