# WhatsApp (واتساب)

> WhatsApp is restricted in Syria, as of 2026-07-17.

- Status: restricted
- Outreach: Contacted
- Company: [Meta](https://unblocksyria.com/en/companies/meta.md)
- Categories: Messaging, Social Media, Video Calling
- Official site: https://www.whatsapp.com
- Community votes: 40
- Last updated: 2026-07-17
- Page: https://unblocksyria.com/en/services/whatsapp

## About

Messaging app for text, voice, and video calls with end-to-end encryption

## Activity summary

Restricted for users in Syria. Community reports in February and March 2026 confirmed that WhatsApp core messaging, voice, and video calling work normally, but Meta AI features remain unavailable to Syrian users as a server-side feature gate rather than a network block. WhatsApp was included in the team's unified outreach to Meta in March 2026, with no response yet.

## Official timeline

- 2026-03-31 — Contacted Company. First official outreach to Meta sent as part of a unified request covering multiple Meta services blocked or restricted in Syria. WhatsApp was included as a sibling service alongside WhatsApp Business, Threads, Meta Horizon, and Meta for Developers.

## Community reports

- 2026-03-01 — Evidence Added. Visual evidence added confirming that Meta AI features remain unavailable within WhatsApp in Syria. A screenshot from an iPhone shows the WhatsApp app functioning normally (settings and themes accessible), but an explicit Meta dialog states "AI chats aren't available for you yet" when attempting to use AI features. This is a server-side feature gate by Meta, not a network block. (evidence: https://api.unblocksyria.com/files/evidence/ttmgbk3v1nusqqwz6jx0vaal/l4tjznw6m2ysx57fqrpazw7g-whatsapp-image-2026-03-01-at-17.11.30.jpeg)
- 2026-02-28 — Investigated. Community reports indicate that WhatsApp core messaging, voice, and video calling features work normally in Syria. However, Meta AI features (AI assistant, image generation, etc.) are not available to Syrian users while they have been rolled out in other countries. This appears to be a feature-level restriction rather than a network block.

## Context

These are geo-restrictions the companies applied themselves, not filtering by Syrian ISPs and not a legal requirement. US and EU sanctions on Syria were lifted in 2025. See https://unblocksyria.com/llms.txt for the regulatory summary and https://unblocksyria.com/en/about for citations to the specific orders and regulations.

## Machine-readable

- JSON: https://api.unblocksyria.com/services/whatsapp?locale=en
- Timeline JSON: https://api.unblocksyria.com/services/whatsapp/timeline?locale=en
- HTML: https://unblocksyria.com/en/services/whatsapp
- Other languages: https://unblocksyria.com/ar/services/whatsapp.md, https://unblocksyria.com/ku/services/whatsapp.md