WhatsApp announced on Monday that it will begin showing ads in certain parts of the app, marking a significant shift as parent company Meta seeks new ways to generate revenue from the messaging platform’s massive global user base.
The ads will appear exclusively in the app’s “Updates” tab — a section used by up to 1.5 billion people daily — and will not intrude on private chats, according to WhatsApp developers.
“The personal messaging experience on WhatsApp isn’t changing,” the company emphasized in a blog post. It added that private messages, calls, and status updates remain fully end-to-end encrypted and won’t be used for ad targeting.
This move represents a major change in direction for WhatsApp, whose founders Jan Koum and Brian Acton had initially promised an ad-free experience when they launched the app in 2009. After Facebook acquired WhatsApp in 2014, both founders eventually left the company, and Meta has since been exploring ways to turn WhatsApp into a revenue generator.
According to WhatsApp, the new ads will be tailored to users based on general information such as age, location (city or country), language preferences, channels they follow, and their interactions with ads. However, the platform reiterated that it will not use private messages, call content, or group membership details to target advertising.
The ad rollout is part of a broader monetization effort. WhatsApp also unveiled two additional features: Channels will be allowed to offer paid subscriptions for exclusive updates, and businesses will be able to pay to promote their channels for greater visibility to new users.
Meta, headquartered in Menlo Park, California, continues to rely heavily on advertising for its income. In 2025, the company brought in $164.5 billion in revenue, with $160.6 billion of that coming from advertising alone.
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