In a significant shift to its long-standing ad-free approach, WhatsApp announced on Monday that it will begin displaying advertisements within the app’s Updates tab. The move marks parent company Meta Platforms Inc.’s latest effort to monetize the widely used messaging platform.
The ads will appear exclusively in the Updates section—used daily by up to 1.5 billion people—and will not be integrated into personal chats, ensuring that users’ one-on-one conversations and calls remain private. “The personal messaging experience on WhatsApp isn’t changing, and personal messages, calls and statuses are end-to-end encrypted and cannot be used to show ads,” the company emphasized in a blog post.
This development represents a major departure from the vision of WhatsApp’s founders, Jan Koum and Brian Acton, who were adamant about keeping the platform free of advertisements when they launched it in 2009. Facebook acquired WhatsApp in 2014, and both founders left the company a few years later. Since then, Meta has been actively seeking ways to turn WhatsApp’s massive user base into a sustainable revenue source.
WhatsApp clarified that ad targeting will rely on general user information such as age, location, language preferences, channels followed within the app, and previous engagement with ads. Importantly, the company said it will not use personal messages, calls, or group memberships to inform ad targeting.
In addition to the introduction of ads, WhatsApp unveiled two more monetization tools. Channels on the platform will soon be able to offer paid subscriptions for exclusive content, and businesses can pay to boost their channel visibility to attract more followers.
The changes reflect Meta’s broader push to capitalize on WhatsApp’s popularity, while attempting to maintain user trust through data privacy safeguards.
