WhatsApp users figure out how to turn off ‘dumbest feature of all time’ with ‘extremely well hidden’ setting change
WHATSAPP users are fuming over another change they’ve noticed on the app recently, describing it as the “dumbest feature of all time”.
The popular messaging platform has been rolling out a number of tweaks lately, which haven’t gone down well with everyone.
Meta-owned WhatsApp replaced the long-running “typing…” message at the top of the screen with a new speech bubble animation at the bottom.
It also got rid of the “recording” message and swapped it for a microphone icon.
But the latest change to cause a stir is not actually a result of WhatsApp bosses.
It’s caused by a Google AI upgrade called Android system intelligence.
Therefore it’s a problem affecting Android phones only, not iPhone.
Users have been sharing screenshots of imposing suggested reply boxes appearing in their chats.
And people have been begging for a solution to switch them off.
“They are often non-sensical, show even if the message I got is NOT in english and make me feel like the AI wants to manipulate my conversation,” one frustrated person wrote on Reddit.
“Anyone knows how to disable it?”
Another commented: “If anyone has a solution for this, it’d be great, I tried disabling enhanced suggestions and it still shows up after every WhatsApp message.”
A third added: “I’ve tried everything here but it still isn’t working! Please help before I go crazy!”
It turns out there is a way to switch smart reply off on Android, though as one user said, it’s “extremely well hidden”.
To turn smart replies off follow these instructions:
- Settings
- Security and privacy
- More security and privacy
- Android System Intelligence
- Keyboard
- Turn off smart reply
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