From chat to cash: WhatsApp rolls out first major ads feature

WhatsApp announced on Monday that it is launching its major advertising features to date, signaling a major pivot for the messaging platform, which has remained largely ad-free since its inception.

The decision represents a delicate move for WhatsApp, particularly after its leadership denied a 2023 report claiming the Meta-owned app was exploring ad integration to boost revenue. Since Meta acquired WhatsApp in 2014, the platform has stood apart from Facebook, Instagram, and other Meta services by maintaining minimal advertising.

Users and regulators alike have closely monitored whether Meta would seek to monetize WhatsApp, a service widely valued for its simplicity and strong privacy protections. Until now, the platform's advertising efforts were limited to promotional messages via WhatsApp Business for opted-in users and limited ad testing in the Status section in select regions. No display ads have appeared in users' chat feeds or conversations.

WhatsApp revealed that three new monetization tools will soon be launched, all contained within the Updates tab—home to the Channels and Status features, which are now used by 1.5 billion people daily. These features became broadly available last year.

The company emphasized that users who rely on WhatsApp strictly for personal messaging will not experience any changes. All advertising tools will remain confined to the Updates tab, which users can disable via settings.

“We’ve been talking about our plans to build a business that does not interrupt your personal chats for years and we believe the Updates tab is the right place for these new features to work,” WhatsApp said.

The upcoming features include paid subscriptions for Channels, promoted channels in the Discovery directory, and ads within the Status feed—WhatsApp’s equivalent of Instagram Stories.

The company also highlighted that the changes were developed with user privacy in mind.

“I want to be really clear about one thing: Your personal messages, calls and statuses will remain end-to-end encrypted. This means no one, not even us, can see or hear them, and they cannot be used for ads,” said Nikila Srinivasan, Meta’s vice president of product management.

She added that WhatsApp will not sell or share phone numbers with advertisers, and that ad targeting will not be influenced by personal messages, calls, or group affiliations.

“To show ads in Status or Channels, we’re going to use basic information like your country or city, your device language and your activity in the Updates tab,” Srinivasan explained.

The new advertising features reflect Meta's broader goal of monetizing WhatsApp’s vast user base, which now exceeds two billion monthly active users. Analysts have long anticipated this step given WhatsApp’s scale and engagement.

Although a specific rollout date was not announced, Srinivasan said:

“They’re going to be rolling out slowly over the next few months, so it might be a while until you see them in your countries.”