Facebook Might Become More Invasive on WhatsApp In The Future
As many of you might know by now, the popular instant messaging app on Android and iOS, WhatsApp, is owned by Facebook. At the moment, there are no ads on the app but it looks like the social media giant hasn’t given up on that avenue just yet.
Recent reports have revealed that Facebook will be making a push towards displaying ads on WhatsApp in the future. To be precise, it’s expected to happen as soon as they have completely unified their messaging apps. Previously, the idea was to bring ads to WhatsApp Status, which is the app’s version of Stories, but that idea was paused. However, a Facebook spokesperson confirmed that “ads in Status remains a long-term opportunity for WhatsApp.”
Apart from that, there were mentions of how Facebook would implement targeted advertising on the messaging app. This includes using phone numbers to match Facebook and WhatsApp accounts in order to determine what ads to show. This however raises a number of concerns within the company such as users deleting their accounts and potential regulatory issues with ongoing antitrust investigations into the company.
When Will Facebook Start Displaying Ads on WhatsApp?
For now, ads aren’t expected to popup on the messaging app anytime soon. They’ve mentioned previously that it will years to merge their messaging infrastructure across all of their apps, with WhatsApp taking the longest time to integrate. When it does happen, just be prepared.
Pokdepinion: I might actually consider permanently moving to another messaging app when that happens. If it’s not too intrusive, I probably wouldn’t mind but it really depends on how this will be implemented.
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