Five months after he moved from running Indian fintech company CRED to leading one of the world's most widely used apps, Kunal Shah has laid out his vision for WhatsApp: a messaging service that makes conversations richer, lets people get everyday tasks done without leaving their chats, and uses artificial intelligence quietly in the background.
Shah, who took over as head of WhatsApp in June 2026, succeeding Will Cathcart, set out three priorities on Wednesday, November 11, after what he described as months of listening to users, according to The Federal.
His goal, he said, is to "help people stay close to those who matter to them, and get more done on WhatsApp."
Priority one: richer connections
The first priority is to make the app's core communication features more expressive and easier to use. "First, we want to make connections richer," Shah said, according to The Federal. He plans to make voice notes, groups, stickers and video simpler and more expressive.
The scale of these features is enormous. Shah said users send more than 10 billion voice messages and 4 billion stickers every day, and WhatsApp handles more than 100 billion messages and 2 billion calls daily.
Priority two: getting things done in chats
The second priority marks a significant shift for WhatsApp. The company is working with financial services and telecom partners so that users can pay bills, borrow money and stay connected while travelling without leaving the app, according to The Federal. Shah said the aim is that "finishing something feels as easy as starting it."
This ambition will draw particular attention in India, WhatsApp's largest market by users. Meta has long tried to turn WhatsApp into a platform for payments and commerce in India, but WhatsApp Pay, its payments service built on the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), has struggled to gain significant market share against PhonePe, Google Pay and Paytm.
Shah's background makes him well suited to the challenge. He founded CRED, which rewards users for paying credit card bills and has expanded into lending, payments and commerce, and before that co-founded FreeCharge, one of India's early mobile recharge and payments apps.
Priority three: AI in the background
The third priority is artificial intelligence. Shah said AI should work in the background to find what users need, complete tasks and prevent them from missing bookings or appointments, according to The Federal.
"The best technology saves you time, so you can get back to the connections that matter," he said.
Meta has been integrating its Meta AI assistant into WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook, and has invested heavily in AI models and infrastructure. Shah's emphasis on AI that works unobtrusively suggests a focus on practical uses, such as reminders and task completion, rather than chatbots that users must actively engage with.
Privacy remains central
Shah stressed that WhatsApp's commitment to privacy would not change. Personal messages and calls will remain end-to-end encrypted, and the quality bar will not change, according to The Federal.
"Trust takes years to earn and a moment to lose, and I don't take that lightly," he said.
Balancing new features, particularly AI and financial services, with privacy will be one of Shah's biggest challenges. Financial services require sharing data with partners, and AI features often rely on processing user data. WhatsApp's reputation for privacy is a key part of its appeal, and any perception that it is being eroded could drive users to rivals.
