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Photon, a startup that helps developers build AI agents working over iMessage and WhatsApp, has raised $4.5 million in seed funding. The company says it has signed up more than 40,000 developers and grown revenue tenfold in four months. To mark the milestone, Photon staged a mock funeral for mobile apps in San Francisco, complete with a coffin for app icons and panels from Vercel, Stripe, and OpenAI.
Paragon Solutions, the spyware maker acquired by US firm AE Industrial Partners in late 2024 and merged with RedLattice, canceled two intelligence contracts with Italy after WhatsApp alleged its Graphite spyware infected over 60 phones across 20-plus countries, including journalists and activists. RedLattice CEO Andrew Boyd told WIRED the company never investigated the abuse allegations or verified them with WhatsApp or Citizen Lab, and instead ended the Italy relationship purely because it was deemed too risky to maintain. Italian authorities have denied any wrongdoing.
WhatsApp has extended its parental control system, previously limited to pre-teen accounts, to teen accounts as well. The update lets parents receive alerts about group activity, set rules for Channels and Status visibility, and choose between a standard or 'Limited Content' version of Meta AI for their teen's account.
WhatsApp announced new parental controls that let parents restrict who can see a teen's profile photo, invite them to groups, or message them, along with limits on channels and status updates. The controls also extend to Meta AI's chatbot, offering a restricted mode for younger users, and require a single parent-set PIN to activate. WhatsApp says personal messages and calls remain private even from parents who enable the controls.
WhatsApp is rolling out parental controls letting guardians manage who teens interact with, including channel usage, Status visibility, group additions, and profile picture access. Parents can also receive notifications about teens' group activity and set Meta AI content restrictions, choosing between a default 13+ setting or a stricter 'Limited Content' mode that disables features like incognito chat. All settings require a parent-set PIN to change, and WhatsApp says messages and calls remain end-to-end encrypted.
WhatsApp is rolling out new parental control tools letting parents monitor when their teen joins or leaves groups and adjust privacy settings, such as who can see a profile photo or add them to groups. Parents will not be able to read messages or hear calls, which remain end-to-end encrypted, and the controls can be turned on or off using a parent-set PIN.
Fideuram chairman Paolo Molesini was deceived by a fake WhatsApp message posing as Intesa Sanpaolo CEO Carlo Messina and a follow-up call using an AI-generated voice impersonating a law firm partner. Believing the request was legitimate, Fideuram wired €95 million to accounts in China and Hong Kong before staff spotted irregularities. Authorities in Italy, Portugal and China helped recover €53 million, and Molesini has since resigned.
Android Authority found code in a Google Messages beta build enabling voice notes to start with a single tap on the waveform icon, replacing the current two-step process of tapping and then hitting a microphone icon. The feature is reportedly in limited testing and not yet widely rolled out.
Meta unveiled at Connect that its holographic avatar technology, powered by a new Muse Realtime Avatar model, is now available on its Ray-Ban Display glasses and upcoming VR headset. Users create an avatar in about five minutes via the Meta AI app by scanning their face and answering voice-prompted questions, then can use the avatar during video calls on apps like WhatsApp or Zoom.
At its Meta Connect event in Menlo Park, Meta announced it will extend its Private Processing system to Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, allowing the AI assistant to handle requests without Meta itself accessing the underlying data. The feature previously launched for WhatsApp and the Meta AI app, powering WhatsApp's Incognito Chat. Meta has not specified which glasses features will use the system, though engineering director Pritam Shah said the platform is already built and functioning rather than just planned.
Meta announced at its Connect 2026 event that its Muse AI agent, which can browse the web, book travel, make calls, send emails and complete purchases, will be extended to its AI glasses. Users will activate Muse hands-free by voice, letting it run tasks in the background and report back once finished, with examples including booking appointments, checking flight prices, tracking down items, and logging workouts or meals.
Court exhibits from lawsuits against Meta reveal that in 2021, while publicly defending Facebook against whistleblower claims of harming children, Mark Zuckerberg privately told a contact on WhatsApp that child safety was not his 'personal main focus.' He said he was more focused on building the metaverse, and weeks later announced Facebook's rebrand to Meta.