Meta has kicked off closed-door trials for third-party autonomous AI agents inside WhatsApp. According to The Information, citing internal documents, these tests pave the way for a secret, high-stakes initiative codenamed "Hatch."
The upcoming feature will transform WhatsApp into an agentic hub capable of executing complex web tasks across external platforms like DoorDash, Etsy, Reddit, Yelp, and Microsoft Outlook.
Open-source roots
Hatch’s underlying architecture borrows heavily from open-source tooling. Developers drew inspiration from OpenClaw, a viral agentic tool built by Peter Steinberger back in November 2025.
Meta banned internal use of OpenClaw in February 2026 citing security concerns, shortly before Steinberger left for OpenAI.
To monetize the new tech, leadership is mulling a high-tier subscription priced at up to $199.99 a month. Meta aims for this price point to far outpace revenue from its current Meta One Plus and Premium tiers currently testing in Singapore and Guatemala.
Muse models and Project Watermelon
Hatch is spearheaded by Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL), led by Alexandr Wang following a $14.3 billion acquihire deal in June 2025.
The lab has already rolled out its proprietary Muse Spark 1.1, the developer-focused Muse Code, and the open-weights Muse Glimmer 30B.
Engineers are now targeting an October 2026 release for their next-gen model, codenamed "Watermelon."
Internal benchmarks claim Watermelon achieves parity with GPT-5.5, utilizing roughly 10 times the compute of its predecessor, Muse Spark. However, these performance numbers remain unverified by third-party auditors.
Compute bets
During Meta's Q2 2026 earnings call, Mark Zuckerberg doubled down on a massive $125 billion to $145 billion AI CapEx budget for 2026.
Zuckerberg laid out three primary focus areas:
- Core ad targeting and recommendation engines
- Enterprise business agents
- Consumer AI assistants for Meta's 3.5 billion users
"It would be foolish to basically just sell all of the compute and take a short-term profit," Zuckerberg told investors.
Commercialization is already ramping up. On August 1, 2026, the company started charging $2.00 per million tokens for its WhatsApp Business Agent, equating to roughly $0.04 to $0.05 per standard interaction.
Meta aims to launch Project Hatch in late August or early September 2026, but market watchers warn of steep execution risks. A $199.99 monthly price tag creates a major barrier for everyday users.
At the same time, shifting to autonomous agents risks locking users even deeper into Meta's closed ecosystem.
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