WhatsApp to Begin Displaying Ads in Parts of the App, Says Meta
Ads will appear only in the Updates tab, with personal chats remaining ad-free and encrypted.
California: WhatsApp announced on Monday that it will soon start showing advertisements in select areas of its platform, marking a significant shift for the messaging service as Meta Platforms looks to build new revenue streams from its massive global user base.
The ads will appear exclusively in the app’s Updates tab, which is used by around 1.5 billion people every day. WhatsApp developers stressed that ads will not appear in personal chats.
“The personal messaging experience on WhatsApp isn’t changing, and personal messages, calls and statuses are end-to-end encrypted and cannot be used to show ads,” the company said in a blog post.
This marks a major departure from the app’s early philosophy. When WhatsApp was founded in 2009, creators Jan Koum and Brian Acton promised the platform would remain free of advertisements. Both founders later left after Facebook acquired WhatsApp in 2014, and Meta has since been seeking ways to monetise the service more directly.
WhatsApp said the ads will be targeted using non-private data such as user age, location, language, and interactions with channels and ads. The company emphasised that personal messages, calls, and group chats will not be used to personalise advertisements.
The new ads feature is one of three monetisation tools revealed on Monday. WhatsApp Channels will now be able to offer paid monthly subscriptions for exclusive updates, and businesses can pay to boost their channel visibility to more users.
Meta continues to rely heavily on advertising for its earnings. In 2025, the company reported USD 164.5 billion in revenue, with USD 160.6 billion coming from ads.
