WhatsApp will now show you ads—Meta’s big change starts rolling out

Meta has introduced ads in WhatsApp's Updates tab, marking a significant shift towards monetization. These ads will appear within the Status feature, alongside user updates, but not in private chats or groups.

Meta has officially started showing ads in WhatsApp, beginning with the Updates tab. With this deployment, ads are seen within the chat app for the first time. Through the "Status" function in the Updates page of the app, Meta has begun displaying advertisements within WhatsApp for the first time. This represents a significant shift in the app's functionality as it progressively transforms into a platform that facilitates advertising-based revenue generation.

Three new features that will be added to the Updates tab—channel subscriptions, promoted channels, and adverts in Status—were revealed by the business on Monday via the official WhatsApp blog. Additionally, WhatsApp disclosed that 1.5 billion people use the chat program every day.

The advertisements will show up under the Status area, which is a feature akin to Facebook Stories or Instagram Stories that lets users upload images, text, or videos that vanish after a day. These advertisements will appear next to the contacts' personal updates that consumers view. Crucially, Meta made it clear that advertisements won't show up in group discussions, private chats, or messaging.

In the blog post, WhatsApp stated, "We've been discussing our plans for years to create a business that doesn't interfere with your private conversations, and we think the Updates tab is the right place for these new features to work."

WhatsApp is launching a channel subscription model in addition to advertisements. Customers will be able to obtain special updates from their preferred channels by paying a monthly subscription. Admins may now increase the exposure of their content by displaying sponsored channels in the Explore area.

WhatsApp claims that limited data, such your location or country, language, the channels you follow, and your ad-interaction style, would be used to tailor the advertising. Your larger Facebook and Instagram ad preferences may also affect what you see if you have connected WhatsApp to Meta's Accounts Centre.