WhatsApp has announced it will begin showing adverts on its platform for the first time, with new features designed to monetise its Updates tab while keeping personal messages private.
Ads Appear Only in the Updates Tab
In a major shift for the Meta-owned app, WhatsApp will now allow businesses to promote content in two key areas of the Updates tab, i.e., Status and Channels. These features are separate from private chats and have been used by more than 1.5 billion people daily, according to Meta.
The new monetisation rollout includes three core features, which are:
1. Ads in Status – short-lived posts similar to Instagram Stories, where businesses can now place adverts that link directly to a chat.
2. Promoted Channels – businesses and creators will be able to pay to have their Channels suggested to users browsing the directory.
3. Channel Subscriptions – a new paid model allowing followers to access exclusive content for a monthly fee. WhatsApp will take a 10% commission.
“Today we’re introducing new features in WhatsApp’s Updates tab, which is home to both Channels and Status,” the company said. “We believe the Updates tab is the right place to introduce this, in a way that doesn’t interrupt personal chats.”
Targeting and Privacy
Meta says it has designed the new advertising features with “privacy as the core principle”. The company is keen to stress that end-to-end encryption still applies to all messages, calls and personal Status posts, meaning they cannot be accessed or used for ad targeting.
Instead, WhatsApp says it will use a limited set of data to decide which ads to show. This includes:
– The user’s country or city.
– App language settings.
– Channels followed.
– Interaction with other ads.
Those who have linked WhatsApp to Meta’s Accounts Centre (used to manage connected services like Facebook and Instagram) may also see more tailored ads, based on preferences or activity from across those platforms. But Meta insists phone numbers and private content will not be shared.
“We will never sell or share your phone number to advertisers,” WhatsApp stated. “Your personal messages, calls and groups you are in will not be used to determine the ads you may see.”
A Strategic Move Towards Business Monetisation
While this is WhatsApp’s first foray into advertising, the move aligns with Meta’s wider strategy to turn the messaging app into a multi-purpose business platform. With public social media engagement falling and users spending more time in private messages and small group updates, WhatsApp’s Status and Channels features represent prime digital real estate.
“We’ve been talking for years about how to build a business on WhatsApp in a way that doesn’t interrupt personal chats,” Meta said. “Now the Updates tab is going to be able to help Channel admins, organisations and businesses build and grow.”
WhatsApp’s Status feature is already used by millions of individuals and companies to post 24-hour content. Channels, meanwhile, offer a one-way broadcast model, popular with news outlets, influencers and service providers—that is now gaining commercial functionality.
By adding adverts and subscription models, Meta is following a monetisation blueprint more common in Asia, where super-apps like WeChat have long blurred the line between messaging, content, and e-commerce.
Businesses and Advertisers
For UK businesses using WhatsApp to communicate with customers, the change brings new opportunities to drive engagement and visibility directly within the app.
Ads in Status updates could, for example, allow a local retailer to post a promotion with a “click to chat” button that starts a WhatsApp conversation. Promoted Channels will enable brands to push their content to new audiences, while paid subscriptions may appeal to creators and media companies offering exclusive updates.
“By showing ads in Status, you can help your business get discovered by new customers and make it easy for them to start a conversation with you, all within WhatsApp,” the company explained.
Although detailed campaign tools are still limited compared to Facebook or Instagram, early reports suggest that WhatsApp will offer businesses insights into click-through rates and some performance data.
Meta says it will gradually roll out the new advertising features over the coming months, starting with select markets. It has not confirmed which countries will be first, but WhatsApp’s Updates tab is known to be more popular in Latin America, India, and Southeast Asia than in the UK or Europe, where adoption of Channels and Status has been slower.
A Careful Balancing Act for WhatsApp
While WhatsApp says personal chats will remain untouched, the introduction of adverts may be seen by some as a departure from the app’s original ethos. For example, WhatsApp was once strongly anti-ads, famously stating in a 2012 blog: “Advertising isn’t just the disruption of aesthetics… at every company that sells ads, the user becomes the product.”
That stance softened after Meta’s acquisition in 2014. With WhatsApp now home to billions of users but little direct revenue, monetisation has become a priority. For example, back in 2023, Meta introduced tools such as WhatsApp Business API, click-to-chat ads from Facebook, and shopping catalogues, but this is the first time that on-platform adverts will be shown within the app itself.
Optional
Meta has also confirmed that the new advertising and subscription options are optional for users. For example, if someone chooses not to follow Channels or browse Status updates, they won’t see any ads. “If you only use WhatsApp to chat with friends and loved ones, there is no change to your experience at all,” the company said.
Even so, some privacy experts have warned that the move could set a precedent. Marijus Briedis, CTO at NordVPN, has noted: “Ads in WhatsApp aren’t just a distraction—they’re a signal of what may come next. Meta’s so-called ‘optional’ data-sharing is rarely as optional as it sounds.”
Regulation
Regulators in the EU are also likely to take a close look at the rollout, especially in light of GDPR requirements and Meta’s ongoing legal challenges over data processing and consent.
More changes are expected as the advertising features evolve. For now, it seems that WhatsApp is just focusing on “ads in the right place”, limiting the impact on its core messaging service. “We also don’t want to have a service that has lots of settings… that’s complexity too,” the company said, confirming that core app tabs like Updates and Channels will remain fixed.
What Does This Mean For Your Business?
It has to be said that this first step into advertising marks a real turning point for WhatsApp and the direction of Meta’s wider messaging strategy. By ringfencing adverts within the Updates tab, the company is attempting to walk a careful line between unlocking new revenue streams and preserving user trust. Whether that balance holds will depend on how the rollout is received across different markets, particularly in Europe, where expectations around privacy and digital intrusiveness remain high.
For UK businesses, the changes bring a new channel for visibility, especially for those already using WhatsApp to handle customer enquiries or share updates. The ability to promote Status content or gain traction through sponsored Channels could offer low-friction ways to reach engaged users, with a direct path into conversation. It may also help smaller firms compete more easily with larger brands in a messaging-first environment. However, uptake will likely depend on how seamlessly these features integrate with the current business tools and how effective the targeting proves in practice.
Advertisers and creators also now have a fresh route into an app with over a billion daily users, but one that has historically resisted the very concept of commercialisation. Meta’s challenge is to prove that these new ad formats deliver value without compromising the simplicity and privacy that have long defined WhatsApp’s appeal. Meanwhile, competitors like Signal and Telegram are likely to be watching very closely and may well seize on any missteps to reinforce their own positioning as ad-free alternatives.
For users, the WhatsApp experience remains largely unchanged for now, provided they steer clear of Channels and Status. However, questions about long-term data use, the permanence of ad features, and the possible expansion of monetisation elsewhere in the app are unlikely to fade. WhatsApp’s keen to promote the message that ads will stay away from personal chats. However, the test will be whether that promise still feels true a year from now.