How to summarize a WhatsApp group chat

Option 1: WhatsApp's Message Summaries, just for you

WhatsApp says Message Summaries uses Meta AI to privately summarize the unread messages in a chat. It is off by default, nobody else in the chat can see that you used it, and WhatsApp says it is rolling out in select markets. It suits catching up on your own, and it never posts anything in the group.

Option 2: Ask Cole in the group, for everyone

Cole joins the group as a participant with its own number. In a WhatsApp group that a Pocodot account pays for, Cole keeps the group's messages as background, including ones that do not mention it, and replies only when someone tags it, uses its name or replies to it. That is what lets it sum up a conversation nobody asked it about at the time.

Set up Cole in your group

Full steps and limits: How to add Cole to a WhatsApp group. Privacy rules for groups: how Cole works in group chats.

A summary every evening

Ask once, and Cole posts a summary on a schedule: "Cole, every day at 9pm post a short summary of today's messages here." Each run looks at that day's messages in the group. Starting or stopping a repeating request in a group needs someone from the account that pays for Cole there, unless that account allows everyone. Each summary uses credits like any other reply, and repeating requests are skipped while the paying account has no credits.

What Cole can and cannot see

• Only messages sent after Cole joined the group. Earlier messages never reach it.
• In a long conversation, Cole reads the most recent stretch in full and a shorter summary of what came before, so a summary of a very busy day can miss small details. Ask about one topic for a tighter answer.
• A photo shared without a question to Cole is noted as a photo, not looked at. To ask about a photo, reply to it and tag Cole.
• A voice note in the group that is not addressed to Cole is not kept, so it is not in a summary. Replying to one and tagging Cole does not add it either: Pocodot downloads that voice note and has it transcribed, but today the transcript is dropped before it reaches Cole.
• Someone who joins the group later is answered from what was said after they joined. If an answer needs something from before, Cole first asks the account that pays for the group, in its private chat.

Tell your group before you add Cole, since it keeps messages that do not mention it. LINE groups work the same way. In Telegram groups, Cole only receives messages that tag it or reply to it, so it cannot summarize the rest of a Telegram conversation.

Related: translating group messages and AI for group and community admins.