WhatsApp announced on Monday that users would begin seeing ads in parts of the app, as owner Meta Platforms seeks to cultivate a new revenue stream by tapping into the billions of people who use the messaging service.
The ads will only be displayed in the app's "Updates" tab , which is used by 1.5 billion people every day. However, they will not appear where personal chats are located, the developers stated.
"The personal messaging experience on WhatsApp remains unchanged, and personal messages, calls and statuses are end-to-end encrypted and cannot be used to display ads ," WhatsApp said in a blog post.
This is a significant change for the company, whose founders Jan Koum and Brian Acton pledged not to run any advertising when they created the platform in 2009.
Facebook bought WhatsApp in 2014, and the two founders left the company a few years later. The parent company, Meta Platforms Inc., has long been trying to generate revenue from WhatsApp.
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WhatsApp stated that ads will be targeted to users based on information such as their age, the country or city they are in, the language they use, the channels they follow in the app, and how they interact with the ads they see.
WhatsApp clarified that it would not use private messages, calls, and groups of which a user is a member to target advertisements to that user.
This is one of three advertising features WhatsApp unveiled Monday in an effort to monetize the app's user base. Channels will also be able to charge users a monthly subscription for exclusive updates. Business owners will also be able to pay to boost their channel's visibility to new users.
Most of Meta's revenue comes from advertising. In 2025, the revenue of the Menlo Park, California-based company was $164.5 billion, of which $160.6 billion came from advertising.
