Meta has officially announced its plans to introduce advertisements on WhatsApp, marking a significant shift in the platform’s monetization strategy.
The ads will be confined to the Updates tab, which houses WhatsApp Channels and Status updates—sections that are now used by over 1.5 billion people daily worldwide.
The new ad formats include promotional content within Status updates, allowing users to discover businesses and instantly initiate conversations about the products or services featured.
In addition, Meta is launching Promoted Channels, which are essentially paid placements that suggest new Channels to users browsing the directory, helping them discover content that aligns with their interests.
Alongside ads, Meta is also introducing Channel subscriptions. This feature enables users to pay a monthly fee for exclusive content and updates from their favorite Channels. While not ad-related, subscriptions are part of Meta’s broader effort to diversify revenue streams on WhatsApp.
Meta emphasized that personal user experiences will remain unaffected. Ads and subscriptions will be limited strictly to the Updates tab, ensuring that chats with friends, family, and group conversations remain free of commercial interruptions. Personal messages, calls, and statuses will continue to be protected by end-to-end encryption.
To tailor the ad experience, WhatsApp will use general information such as a user’s city or country, language preferences, Channels followed, and engagement with current ads. If WhatsApp is linked with the Meta Accounts Center, ad preferences and related data from other Meta-owned platforms may also be used to personalize content.
Importantly, Meta reassured users that their phone numbers will not be shared with advertisers. Moreover, personal conversations and group activities will not influence the ads shown.
All these new features—including ads in Status and Promoted Channels, as well as Channel subscriptions—are expected to roll out gradually over the coming months.
While the move marks WhatsApp’s deeper foray into monetization, Meta insists that it aims to preserve the core, private messaging experience that has long defined the platform.