Guide · AI on WhatsApp · For the owner who signs off every promotion

Meta can change how your WhatsApp promotions look: automatic creative optimisations, and how to switch them off

When a business sends promotions through Meta's Marketing Messages API for WhatsApp, Meta can adjust how each message looks: a filter on the picture, a headline pulled from the text, bolder formatting. Meta calls these automatic creative optimizations. Here is what Meta says they change, what it lists as coming or paused, and how they are switched on or off.

Published 7 October 2026 · Updated 8 October 2026

What Meta may change today

Meta says the feature tests small variations of a marketing message and, over time, keeps the one that gets the most taps. It compares the idea to Advantage+ creative for ads. Meta also warns that the result can vary from one message to the next, even when the input is the same.

Image filtering: For some campaigns, Meta applies the filter it judges most effective to the header picture.
Headline extraction: Meta pulls key words or phrases from the message to make a headline above the text.
Tap-target title: Meta pulls key words from the message to make a title for the area the customer taps.
Text formatting: Meta tidies the formatting, such as removing extra spaces or making phrases bold. It says the words themselves are not changed, only their format.

Separately from these, Meta's page lists one more change under other optimizations: it shortens the visible text of a promotion to a set number of lines, with the rest behind Read more and no words changed. A message with a picture, video, document, location or GIF at the top shows three lines; a message with no header shows four; and a message with a link typed into the text but no button shows five, whatever its header. Whatever matters most has to fit in those first lines.

The ad side: Advantage+ creative

Meta's Business Help Center describes what Advantage+ creative does to ads. The pictures, videos and text you upload may be adjusted, and may differ by who sees them, while Meta keeps the core message. Some of these enhancements are switched on by default and can be switched off at any time. Meta marks the ones that use generative AI, among them text generation, text improvements, translations, image generation, background generation, video subtitles and added music. An ad picture created or significantly edited with some of these tools may carry an AI info label next to the Ad label, or a note under About this ad. Advertisers in some regulated categories, such as financial services, health, housing, employment, credit, and social issues, elections or politics, and in some countries, may not get every generative feature yet. Our reading: for an ad that opens WhatsApp, the generated wording is what a customer reads before the chat starts, so check which text features are on.

Pictures Meta's AI makes from yours

Two of these generative tools have their own Help Center pages. Image generation uses a picture or video you upload as a reference and offers new image variations that may share elements such as the background colour or the objects shown. You choose which variations to use, can ask for an edit, or skip them all. Meta says it is not available on Advantage+ app, Advantage+ sales or Advantage+ catalog campaigns at this time. Background generation is the catalog case: it is for Advantage+ catalog ads with the Sales objective, and Meta switches it on by default for eligible advertisers. Meta says the backgrounds may take about 2 days to generate, Ads Manager sends a notification when they are ready, and they go live 24 hours after that notification unless background generation is switched off. Switched off, the original product pictures are shown again, and reports do not break results down by each generated background. Our reading: a product can appear on a background nobody at the business chose, so look at the samples inside that 24-hour window.

Listed as coming, and paused

Meta lists six more under “coming soon” and says its plans may change: adding other products from the catalog to a single-picture message; turning a phrase such as “30% off” into a tag on the picture; adding coloured padding so the picture fits the best shape; rewording the button text to match the offer; turning offer phrases into links or shortening links; and adding a card at the end that shows the business profile, such as its category, short description and website.

Four are paused, and Meta says not to expect them: cropping the picture, laying text over it, turning it into an animation and generating a new background.

Switched on, or off

Meta's changelog says that from 21 April 2026 these changes are off by default for the whole WhatsApp account, and a business opts in through its provider's system or directly in WhatsApp Manager. Each change can also be switched on or off for a single template.

Our reading: check each template

The template-level part of Meta's page still says every optimization is on by default for a template, which does not sit easily with the account-level default. Rather than guess, ask the provider to show which changes are switched on for each marketing template, especially templates whose wording or pictures have to stay exactly as approved.

Why Meta offers it

Meta's page gives one result from its own testing: changes like headline extraction raised the click-through rate by 13.9% on average. Meta says the test covered over 50 million delivered marketing messages from about 200 advertisers between 1 December 2025 and 7 January 2026. Whether a business wants that trade, more taps against less control over the exact look, is its own decision.

The Marketing Messages API itself is explained in the marketing messages guide, and measuring what a promotion sold in the conversion guide.

Questions

Can Meta's AI put new backgrounds behind our product pictures?

Yes, in one case. Meta's Help Center says background generation, for Advantage+ catalog ads with the Sales objective, is switched on by default for eligible advertisers. The generated backgrounds go live 24 hours after Ads Manager says they are ready, unless the feature is switched off, for the ad under Advantage+ creative in Ads Manager or for a single product in Commerce Manager. Switching it off brings back the original product pictures.

Will people be told if Meta's AI made or changed our ad?

Sometimes. Meta's article on Advantage+ creative says an ad picture created or significantly edited with certain of its generative AI tools may show an AI info label next to the Ad label, or a note under About this ad in the ad's three-dot menu. Meta says some creative enhancements are on by default and can be switched off at any time.

How many lines of a WhatsApp promotion show before Read more?

For promotions sent through Meta's Marketing Messages API, Meta's page says three lines when the message has a picture, video or other media at the top, four with no header, and five when a link is typed into the text without a button. The rest stays behind Read more.

Can Meta change the words in our WhatsApp promotion?

Meta says its text formatting changes only the format, such as spacing and bold, not the words. Headline and title extraction reuse words already in the message.

Are automatic creative optimizations on for our account?

Meta's changelog says they have been off by default for the whole account since 21 April 2026, with opt-in in WhatsApp Manager. They can also be set per template, so ask your provider to check each one.

Does this apply to every WhatsApp marketing message?

Meta documents it for marketing messages sent through its Marketing Messages API for WhatsApp.

Will Meta crop or animate our pictures?

Not at present. Meta lists cropping, text overlays, animation and background generation as paused.

Sources

Meta's developer documentation: Send marketing messages (automatic creative optimizations), read 7 October 2026.
Meta's developer documentation: Marketing Messages API for WhatsApp changelog, read 7 October 2026.
Meta Business Help Center: About Advantage+ creative, read 8 October 2026.
Meta Business Help Center: Generate image variations in Meta Ads Manager, read 8 October 2026.
Meta Business Help Center: Create an Advantage+ catalog ad with background generation in Meta Ads Manager, read 8 October 2026.

More plain-language notes like this one are on the guides page.

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