Meta has begun rolling out WhatsApp for iOS version 25.19.75 for some users via the App Store, with a wider rollout expected over the next few weeks. The headline new feature in this update is AI-powered chat wallpapers powered by Meta AI.
This feature was previously noticed by WABetaInfo as being under development, but now it’s making its way to more users via the stable channel. Right now, WhatsApp comes with a decent selection of wallpapers and lets you choose from your gallery, but being able to create your own with Meta AI will give you endless choices.
To set an AI wallpaper when you have the feature, you’ll either go to the chat theme settings inside WhatsApp’s settings or access those settings for individual chats within the chats themselves. From there, you’ll see an option to “Create with AI”. From there, just type in a simple or imaginative text prompt and you’ll be shown various wallpapers based on your suggestion, then just preview and select your chosen wallpaper.
Just like every big tech company, Meta is trying its hardest to make you use Meta AI wherever you turn. You can already chat with it across its social media apps, and now it wants you to use the image creation capabilities to generate wallpapers.
Interestingly, this application of AI may be less offensive to people who don’t really like AI and the data collection policies that go along with it. Having it generate a wallpaper is a one-time event and it's just a very brief interaction with the AI, rather than a detailed conversation for Meta to suck up and train on. If you’re excited for this, be on the lookout in the coming weeks when Meta rolls it out to more users.
In other recent WhatsApp for iOS news, we reported yesterday that the company was working on threaded messages that will make it easier to keep track of replies in busy chats.