For every useful implementation of AI in an app, there are twice as many that seemingly exist for no reason. For Meta, a dedicated AI app makes sense for anyone actually looking for it. The new Ray-Ban glasses? Sure. But Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp? Aside from a few genuinely helpful use cases — why?
AI has become the default for just about anything in tech, resulting in a flood of mostly meaningless features no one asked for. So if you’re on any of Meta’s popular social or messaging apps, you might be looking for a way to rid yourself of it altogether.
Here’s the thing: If you’re looking for an easy solution to turn off AI, you won’t find one, and that’s because you can’t in Meta apps. Imagine that. Instead, you’ll need to be satisfied with muting, hiding and ignoring AI.
Below, we’ll go over a few ways to mute or turn off certain AI features in Meta apps. If you aren’t using AI in the apps already, the following actions may not make a big difference in the long run.
How to mute Meta AI in Instagram
Even if you’ve never messaged Meta AI on Instagram, you can mute the chat so you never have to.
On the Instagram app:
- Tap on the Messenger icon
- Tap the new message icon
- Meta AI will likely appear in the “suggested” section, but you can search for it otherwise
- Open the chat with Meta AI and tap the “i” icon at the top right
- Tap Mute
- Toggle Mute Messages and “until I change it”
- Tap Hide Message Previews for good measure
How to mute Meta AI in Facebook
Meta AI isn’t just in Facebook’s search bar — it’s also scanning comments to generate summaries, giving people the gist of a conversation without reading through every reply.
Here’s how turn off AI comment summaries on your posts:
- Click your profile picture (on web) or menu on the bottom right (for mobile)
- Tap or Click Settings & Privacy
- Tap or Click Settings
- Scroll to the Audience and Visibility section
- Tap or Click Posts
- Toggle Allow comment summaries on your posts to off
How to Mute Meta AI in Facebook Messenger:
- From Facebook app, tap the Messenger icon
- Tap the search bar
- Tap the blue and purple Meta AI icon to open the chat
- Tap the “i” icon at the top right
- Tap Mute
Turning off comment summaries and the Meta AI chat will automatically apply to both mobile and web, so you won’t need to do this more than once.
Mute Meta AI in WhatsApp
WhatsApp users looking to mute Meta AI will essentially need to do the same as above, but will first need to start a chat with it.
- Open Whatsapp
- Tap the Meta AI icon at the top
- Type something in the chat — anything, and send it
- Go back to view all of your chats
- Swipe the Meta AI conversation to the left and tap More
- Tap Mute
- Tap Always from the menu that appears
If you change your mind and want Meta AI to join you in these apps, you’ll just need to unmute the conversations to check it out again.
