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When Meta's AI rewrites or translates your WhatsApp ad: text generation, translation into Arabic, the AI label and the off switch

The words in an ad that opens WhatsApp are the last thing a customer reads before the chat starts. Meta's AI can now write variations of them, move your phrases around the picture, and translate them into the viewer's language, including Arabic. Some of this is on before you touch anything. Here is what Meta's Help Center says each feature does, when an ad gets an AI label, and where the off switches are.

Published 8 October 2026

What Meta's AI may do to the words

Text generation: From your own primary text and headline, Meta can generate up to five variations, emphasising keywords and selling points. It can shape them to personas built from your account and past ads, and to a brand tone you set, with words you block. Meta shows a variation when it predicts better results. Persona variations work when your text is in English, Portuguese or Spanish, and the feature is not in every region or language yet.
Text improvements: Switched on by default. Meta takes keywords and phrases from your ad copy and shows them on or around the picture, as overlays, footers or more prominent headlines. You can also let AI pick out promotional phrases.
Optimize text per person: When on, any text you provided may appear in any place in the ad and alongside any of your other text, so each person can see a different combination.
Text translations: The primary text and headline are translated into each viewer's preferred language for single image, video and carousel ads. From English, the list includes Arabic, Hindi, Bengali, Tagalog, Indonesian, Chinese and several European languages. You cannot edit the translation, but the ad preview shows it before publishing.
Voiceover and overlay translations: A video's voiceover can be translated and dubbed, from English into languages including Arabic and Hindi, for single video ads in Facebook Feed and Instagram Feed, Reels and Stories; the preview starts with the first six seconds. Text on an image can be translated too, but from English only into Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Italian and Indonesian. None of the translations are offered in South Korea.

Our reading: a translated ad brings chats in that language

For a business in the Gulf, translating an English ad into Arabic or Hindi can reach far more people. But the customer who taps it will most likely write to you in that language. Before switching translations on, make sure whoever answers the WhatsApp number can reply in every language the ad will be shown in.

Meta adds that reporting stays at the level of the ad, so you will not see results for each text variation separately. Its supplemental terms for generative AI ad features have applied since 6 May 2024.

When the ad says AI was involved

Meta automatically adds an AI info label when its own tools, such as background generation, image generation or added animation, create or significantly edit a picture or video in the ad. It also labels ads it detects were made or edited with other companies' generative AI tools, using industry-standard metadata. The label is found in the ad's three-dot menu, under About this ad, and Ads Manager tells you before publishing when an ad will carry it.

In some places local rules call for more. For ads shown in the European Region, California, New York, India and Taiwan, an advertiser may be offered the chance to disclose AI use itself, and the label then sits next to the ad label. Ads about social issues, elections or politics must disclose realistic images, video or audio made or edited with AI.

What Meta does not say

Meta's examples of tools that trigger the label are all picture and video tools. Its articles do not say whether text written by text generation, on its own, puts a label on the ad.

Switching it off

While creating the ad. In Ads Manager, under Ad creative, choose Set up creative and go to Enhancements, where each one can be switched off or customised. Meta warns that some can only be switched off in Advanced preview: in the ad preview choose Expand, open the Advantage+ creative tab, and check there too.
After publishing. Open the Ads tab, tick the ad, choose Edit, and in the Advantage+ creative section choose Edit again. The same Advanced preview check applies.
For many ads at once. Tick the ads, open the menu next to Edit and choose Advantage+ creative, then Edit all selected ads. Every ad selected must use the same ad format.
To stop text being mixed per person. Meta says either switch off all optimisations, or for an image ad switch off visual touch-ups, relevant comments, add overlays and text improvements; for a video ad, video touch-ups, relevant comments and text improvements.

Setting the house rules once

Two account-level settings shape what the AI does on every ad. The first is branding: saved presets for colours, font, logo, text tone and visual style, which Meta suggests from your previous ads, the websites you have linked to, your Facebook Page and a connected online store, and which you can confirm, edit or remove. Text tone steers text generation, and the text generation article adds that you can block specific words. Meta says branding is on by default for any ad using a generative AI enhancement, and off for the rest. The second is a box in Ads Manager's Advertising settings, under Creating ads and Creative features, called Test new creative features. Ticked, it lets Meta apply enhancements still in testing to eligible campaigns; only eligible advertisers see it. Our reading: an owner who wants predictable wording should check the tone and blocked words, and leave that box unticked.

Meta's own advice is to check the ad preview before publishing, because some enhancements are on by default. Advertisers in some regulated categories, and in some countries, may not have every generative feature yet. How Meta can change the look of WhatsApp promotions themselves, not ads, is in our creative changes guide, and the AI that picks the audience and budget is in our Advantage+ guide.

Questions

Can we stop Meta trying new, still-testing AI features on our ads?

Yes, if the option is offered to you. In Ads Manager's Advertising settings, under Creating ads, open Creative features and untick Test new creative features. Meta says that when it is ticked, features still in testing may be applied to eligible campaigns, and that only eligible advertisers can opt in.

Can Meta translate our English WhatsApp ad into Arabic?

Yes, according to Meta's article on generative AI translations. The primary text and headline can be translated from English into Arabic, among other languages, for single image, video and carousel ads, and a video's voiceover can be dubbed from English into Arabic for single video ads in certain feeds, Reels and Stories. Text inside an image cannot be translated into Arabic. You cannot edit the translated text, so check the preview.

Will our ad show that it was made with AI?

It may. Meta automatically adds an AI info label, found under About this ad in the three-dot menu, when its tools such as background generation, image generation or added animation create or significantly edit a picture or video, or when it detects another company's AI tool was used. Ads Manager warns you before publishing. Meta does not say whether generated text alone triggers the label.

How do we stop Meta rewording our ad?

Switch off the text features in Ads Manager: in Enhancements while creating the ad, or under Advantage+ creative when editing it, and check Advanced preview as well, because Meta says some can only be switched off there. Text improvements is on by default. Several ads with the same format can be changed at once.

Can we see which AI-written version brought the most chats?

No. Meta says reporting is based on the single ad, so you will not see results for individual text variations.

Sources

Meta Business Help Center: About text generation in Meta Ads Manager, read 8 October 2026.
Meta Business Help Center: Enable text improvements in Meta Ads Manager, read 8 October 2026.
Meta Business Help Center: Turn the optimize text per person feature on or off in Meta Ads Manager, read 8 October 2026.
Meta Business Help Center: About generative AI translations in Meta Ads Manager, read 8 October 2026.
Meta Business Help Center: About AI info on ads created or edited with generative AI tools, read 8 October 2026.
Meta Business Help Center: Turn off Advantage+ creative enhancements in Meta Ads Manager, read 8 October 2026.
Meta Business Help Center: Bulk edit Advantage+ creative enhancements in Meta Ads Manager, read 8 October 2026.
Meta Business Help Center: About branding for your ads in Meta Ads Manager, read 8 October 2026.
Meta Business Help Center: Opt in to or out of testing new creative features in Meta Ads Manager, read 8 October 2026.

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

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