Many of the Meta-owned apps are riddled with ads today and often detrimental to the user experience – but for many years, WhatsApp is the only one that remained ad-free. However, the age of ad-free WhatsApp is ending soon, as Meta will soon implement some form of advertising in the messaging app.
Ads Are Coming To WhatsApp
The (somewhat) good news is, WhatsApp’s ad implementation won’t be the same as the one you’ll see in Messenger, where the ads will slot in between active chats; instead, it’ll stay clear of that and reside within Status, which is a feature similar to Instagram Stories. In its blog post, the developers stressed that if you use the app strictly for chats only, “there is no change to your experience at all.”
Meta also promises limited use of information for ad targeting, and these include country or city, language, the Channels that a user follows, and any interactions with the ads they may see. Personal identifiable information (PII) like phone number, calls and any groups that a user joins will not be shared to advertisers or be used for advertisements.
Besides ads, WhatsApp is also introducing other monetization schemes for business owners including Channel subscriptions – where users can pay to view exclusive content via a monthly fee – and promoted Channels, both of which will also appear within the Updates tab of the app alongside the upcoming implementation of ads.
Pokdepinion: How long until ads eventually invade the chat tabs? Hopefully not anytime soon.
