Fenty Beauty is taking its community-first strategy into messaging. On Wednesday, the Fenty Beauty brand launched “Rose Amber,” an AI-powered beauty advisor built for WhatsApp, marking its first formal partnership with the platform in the U.S.
The experience allows users to chat directly with the brand in Whatsapp to get product recommendations, tutorials and reviews in a conversational format. It is designed to feel like texting a friend.
“We’ve always wanted to partner with Meta more deeply,” said Nanette Wong, global vp of marketing and communications at Fenty. “WhatsApp is so widely used all over the world, and our community and accessibility are important to us. So, we’re always thinking of new ways to connect with them.”
The brand has spent the last few years experimenting across digital platforms, including activating on gaming platforms. But messaging introduces a different layer of interaction.
“What I really loved about this one is this ability to have more of a one-on-one connection,” Wong said. “It can feel more relatable and conversational, versus looking at a site or looking up Reddit. This is very tailored to what they’re asking.”
Inside the chat, users can ask questions about skin concerns, take quizzes, or explore products across Fenty Beauty, Fenty Skin and Fenty Hair. The assistant responds with product suggestions alongside creator videos and customer reviews. That focus on highlighting the community content is intentional, Wong said.
For Meta, the partnership reflects a broader push to expand how businesses use messaging.
“We’re thrilled to partner with Fenty Beauty to bring ‘Rose Amber’ to life on WhatsApp,” a WhatsApp spokesperson said. “We saw an opportunity to help them do what we do best: start engaging conversations with their loyal customer base.”
“In many places across the world, WhatsApp is a way of life,” the spokesperson added. “Every day, people have more than 1 billion active threads with businesses across Meta’s messaging platforms, and nearly 80% of people globally message with a business at least once a week.”
In some markets, those conversations extend far beyond customer service to include in-app transactions. In Delhi, users can buy a subway ticket to the airport and also check in for a flight on WhatsApp. In Brazil, more than 20% of L’Oréal’s direct-to-consumer online sales come through conversational commerce on the app, as the company uses chat-based interactions to guide purchases and answer questions in real time, according to reporting by the New Yorker. The company has also found that WhatsApp is six times more effective than email at converting abandoned carts.
And across beauty, WhatsApp is accelerating as an engagement channel.
L’Oréal is expanding its generative AI-powered “Beauty Genius” tool to WhatsApp in early 2026, making it possible for users to message the assistant “the way you would with a friend,” according to reporting by Beauty Inc. The tool, which has already hosted more than 480,000 conversations in beta, offers personalised routines, ingredient education and product recommendations, and has driven higher conversion rates and average order value among users who engage with it. The goal, executives said, is to meet growing demand for conversational commerce while positioning the brand as a trusted source of beauty expertise.
WhatsApp is leaning into these existing behaviors. “WhatsApp already offers solutions for millions of businesses of all sizes to reach and engage their customers,” the company’s spokesperson said. “What sets this apart is that Fenty Beauty is among the first prestige beauty brands to use WhatsApp as a direct storytelling channel.”
For Fenty, the launch is also about testing how far that channel can go. Wong described the experience as an ongoing initiative, with plans to refine it based on user feedback. And the longer-term ambition extends beyond the U.S., Wong said. She pointed to the potential to expand the offering globally, to integrate messaging more deeply into customer communications and to facilitate in-app purchases.
At the same time, she positioned WhatsApp as part of a broader marketing mix. “We used to think of a consumer as being on a single journey, like a linear journey — but we know today that consumers are just everywhere, all at once,” she said. “This is really complementary to all the angles we’re doing.”
