Some of OpenAI’s announcements for its 12 Days event ChatGPT the new things were easy to guess. The full release of ChatGPT o1, ChatGPT research goes publicAnd the official deployment of Sora are some of the things you could have seen coming. But the free 1-800-ChatGPT number that OpenAI announced on Wednesday is something that was definitely not on my list.

I haven’t seen ChatGPT’s advanced voice mode get regular phone support, which the 1-800 number will do for you. This is an incredibly nifty feature that will do more for OpenAI’s ChatGPT marketing department than it will for users.

The 1-800 number will give you 15 minutes of free AI talk time per month in the United States and Canada. It works from any type of phone, including older flip phones and rotary home phones. OpenAI demonstrated both during the short livestream. But the most interesting feature is ChatGPT support in WhatsApp.

You can use the same number to talk to ChatGPT in the popular chat app. There are no limits and the phone works worldwide. This is less clever than calling a phone number to talk to ChatGPT, and I think it’s a big attack on Meta’s Meta AI.

Meta AI is a ChatGPT product from Meta. The company formerly known as Facebook has bundled Meta AI with all of its social platforms, including Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. If you use one of these apps, you have access to Meta AI right now, or it’s coming soon. Meta was unable to release Meta AI to a global release because some markets require special attention. This is of course the EU.

Once Meta AI is available, you will no longer be able to turn it off. You can avoid using it in any of these apps, but Meta AI is now integrated into all of Meta’s social networks.

Introducing ChatGPT into WhatsApp via the 1-800-ChatGPT number is easily an attack on Meta AI, which Meta can’t really respond to. Suddenly, WhatsApp users can talk to the AI ​​they prefer directly in WhatsApp instead of the one available by default.

Just look at the proposed OpenAI demo. The user switches from chatting with a person to chatting with ChatGPT to ask a question. They might ask Meta AI the same question, as the Meta AI search/composer box is visible right at the top of chats in WhatsApp.

To chat with ChatGPT in WhatsApp, save the 1-800 number in your contacts. Then, type in your questions and prompts, and the AI ​​will respond.

As a long-time ChatGPT user, I will never chat with the chatbot via WhatsApp. I will use the standalone ChatGPT apps or the website. However, many smartphone owners are still new to the AI ​​game. They may be familiar with ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Meta AI, but they may not use any of them. The WhatsApp integration gives OpenAI another way to promote its AI services to consumers who don’t use AI chatbots.

WhatsApp access could be the gateway that gets them to install ChatGPT apps. From there, they could consider premium access for AI. And all of this will happen in an app with built-in Meta AI access.

Will this actually work? We’ll have to wait and see if OpenAI shares stats on 1-800 calls and WhatsApp engagement. At the very least, it’s a great marketing tactic worth pursuing.

When it comes to WhatsApp chats with ChatGPT, the privacy implications are unclear here. You would use the service without an account. Additionally, WhatsApp chats must be end-to-end encrypted so that the content of the chat is only visible to both parties.

But one party is an AI that might have instructions to export some of those chats to OpenAI for security reasons or to improve the service. After all, the toll-free number alerts you that the call might be recorded.

Additionally, the WhatsApp service can potentially give OpenAI access to many phone numbers that can be targeted with ChatGPT promotional texts. It may never happen; I’m speculating here. But OpenAI will want to increase its customer base, so this is one way to do that.

OpenAI could also match some of these numbers to existing ChatGPT accounts. But again, if you have a ChatGPT account, you wouldn’t really want the WhatsApp experience.