WhatsApp Begins Widespread Ads in Status, Channels

Meta has officially begun rolling out advertisements on WhatsApp, marking a significant shift from its previous ad-free experience and breaking the original promise made by co-founder Jan Koum to keep the platform free of ads. Ads will appear exclusively in the Updates tab, specifically in the Status and Channels sections, while private chats and calls remain fully encrypted and ad-free. Meta will target ads using general account information such as location, language, and interests without accessing personal message content or phone numbers, and users who only use WhatsApp for personal messaging will see no changes. Alongside ads, Meta is introducing new monetization features like paid channel subscriptions and promoted channels, positioning WhatsApp as a broader business platform similar to WeChat. This move reflects Meta's strategy to monetize WhatsApp's massive user base of over 3 billion monthly users without compromising user privacy in chats. However, this transition has sparked concern among users about WhatsApp evolving from a messaging service into a social media platform.