According to information shared by the company, WhatsApp has said it will add advertising tools, a big turn from the long-held promise that ads would never appear on the app. With more than 1.5 billion people checking Messages every day, the Meta-owned service plans to place money-making slots inside the Updates section, the same area that already holds Channels and Status posts.
Under growing pressure to earn revenue from its two-billion-plus monthly users, these tweaks are the boldest bid WhatsApp has made yet to turn a profit. Unlike Meta siblings Facebook and Instagram, WhatsApp has steered clear of standard in-feed ads ever since Mark Zuckerbergs group bought the service in 2014.
“Personal WhatsApp chats will not be affected,” the firm stressed.
The platform explained that private threads will remain ad-free. People who rarely visit Status or Channels probably wont see any difference, and all promotional content will stay contained in the Updates tab. For anyone who wants the app completely clear of marketing, the Updates section can be switched off in the settings.
In a recent statement, WhatsApp said, We have spent years building a system that keeps chats private, and we think the new Updates tab is the safest place for these extra tools.
Fresh money-making items include ads appearing inside Status-the apps version of Instagram Stories-sponsored Channels tucked into the Discovery feed, and optional, paid subscriptions for Channels.
Meta product chief Nikila Srinivasan reassured users that privacy is still at the heart of the service. To be clear, every private call, message, and status you share is locked end-to-end. We dont look at it for ads, and nobody-not even us-can read or listen, she said.
She said the app won’t use private chats to shape the ads you see and it won’t sell your phone number to brands either. Instead, it will rely on basic facts-your country, device language, and what you do in the Updates tab-to serve ads that feel a little more relevant.
The ads are now woven directly into the main experience, though WhatsApp had already tried a handful of Status promotions and messages from business accounts.
Because WhatsApp is used everywhere and opened so often, analysts have debated for years when-and how-Meta would start milking that audience for extra revenue. The company said the rollout will happen gradually over the coming months, yet it stopped short of offering any firm dates
