WhatsApp has launched its first experiment with displaying ads within its platform, after years of resisting this trend, which has long distinguished it from other Meta-owned messaging apps.
For the first time, WhatsApp will begin displaying marketing messages in the Status section, the company announced. This represents a major shift in the app's policy, which has been in place since its founding in 2009, when it adhered to privacy and strictly rejected advertising.
Despite this shift, the company asserts that user privacy will not be affected; advertisers will not be allowed access to message content or sender information, and ad targeting will be based solely on general data, such as language and geographic location.
Since the app's launch, WhatsApp's founders have been so adamant about refusing to display ads that they even charged users a nominal subscription fee, even at a time when most messaging apps were free.
However, its acquisition by Facebook in 2014—which later became Meta—raised questions about the fate of this policy, especially after the app's founders left and its increasing integration into the parent company's ecosystem, known for its expertise in digital advertising.
While WhatsApp has previously offered some commercial services, such as the ability to click on a Facebook or Instagram ad to start a conversation with a business via WhatsApp, this update marks the first time ads have appeared within the app itself.
The Status feature was launched in 2017, allowing users to post visual updates similar to Instagram Stories that last for 24 hours. According to WhatsApp, ads will be displayed alongside friends' posts in this section, and WhatsApp emphasized that private conversations will remain encrypted and not subject to any advertising exploitation.
