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- Meta AI is an AI chatbot ingrained into WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook in an attempt to replace browsers.
- It disrupts the app interface due to unfeasible button placement, and irrelevant suggested searches.
- It is not much different from chatGPT and Google’s Gemini except that Meta AI can produce visuals.
In April, Meta began rolling out its latest chatbot, Meta AI into its social platforms. After the forceful update, users found the change irrelevant and low on usability.
What Is Meta AI?
Meta AI is an AI chatbot introduced by Meta. WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram all received an update that integrated this change into the apps’ interface. Just like other chatbots, such as chatGPT and Google’s Gemini, it can answer your queries, provide reasoning, as well as turn your ideas into intriguing visuals.
As appealing as it sounds, the only difference it has with the mentioned competitors is its ability to visualize prompts. Other than that, all three pretty much work along the same lines.
Meta AI Is Ruining My Apps’ Interface
Meta AI has recently been pushed onto our socials, and honestly, the update is super unnecessary. Honestly, my socials were better off without this forceful integration of AI. And I am not saying this out of disappointment, but there are solid reasons users have been hating this upgrade.
Talking about WhatsApp, whenever I search for a contact or a specific text in my chats, Meta AI begins to display suggestions in the initial few rows. It gets distracting and in some cases, I have to scroll down unnecessarily to find my text.
Tapping on the search bar alone brings you three rows of suggestions for things completely irrelevant and random. Personally, I see no use of this. Plus, the button placement is weird and interrupts my scrolling.
Coming to Instagram, the first half of the screen becomes occupied by Meta AI and its suggestions as soon as I tap on the search bar. What an unnecessary addition to an otherwise convenient interface.
In comparison, the button placement on Facebook is at least a bit better. Located on the top-most bar, Meta AI is at least out of sight on this app.
The worst part of it all is that there is no way we can turn off or remove the feature on our apps at our will. I asked the chatbot if I could turn it off and it replied “You can’t disable it from this experience, but you can search how you normally would engage with a variety of results.”
Is It Useful?
Keeping aside the biases, I decided to give Meta AI the benefit of the doubt and tested it on a few prompts. As expected, it could perform basic arithmetic calculations, fetch weather details, look up distances between cities, and visualize my text-based ideas.
However, it failed my vocabulary test. When asked to generate a four-syllable word starting with the letter “F,” it responded with “flexibility” and “formularity.” These are five-syllable words, and the chatbot was incorrect.
While it might serve its purpose for simpler tasks, I don’t find it necessary to integrate it into the apps I rely on for socializing with my loved ones. For more complex inquiries, I can always turn to my browser or alternative AI platforms for answers.
User Response
Just like me, this unuseful integration of Meta AI into socials did not sit well with users. People took to X to express their annoyance with this change. Some users believe it is trying to replace the search bar on these platforms.
“ask meta ai” replacing the search bar on instagram is so annoying
— kat 🏹 (@thisiskattrying) May 9, 2024
While others expressed how it’s making the search bar unusable on their social apps. I agree with this a hundred percent because the only reason I click on the search bar is to look up my contacts or friends.
Has anyone else's Instagram search bar become unusable because of that stupid Meta AI thing? I don't want to ask AI a question, I want to look up an Instagram profile.
— Anna Menta (@annalikestweets) May 6, 2024
All in all, this is a very unnecessary addition. Plus, it becomes hard to ignore its presence, especially in WhatsApp since I can see the button in two places, seriously Meta? To me, it looks like a desperate attempt from Meta resulting from the fear of being left behind in the AI race.
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News Reporter
Abdullah is an avid gamer who primarily plays single-player titles. If you can’t find him anywhere, he’ll probably be at his desk playing The Witcher 3 for the millionth time. When he isn’t playing games, he’s either reading or writing about them.
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