WhatsApp Ads Debut in Updates Section, Personal Chats Unaffected

WhatsApp this week introduced advertising to its messaging platform, but your encrypted conversation threads in the Meta-owned app are off limits for marketers – at least for now.

whatsapp ads
WhatsApp announced on Monday it will display ads through three new features, all contained within the Updates tab. Users will see promoted content in Status updates, discover promoted channels, and encounter subscription-based channel content.

The ads won't appear in personal chats or use encrypted message content for targeting. Instead, WhatsApp said it will rely on basic information like location, language, and channel follows to serve relevant ads.

"We've been talking about our plans to build a business that does not interrupt your personal chats for years," WhatsApp stated in its announcement.

The move comes after years of deliberation. WhatsApp's founders originally opposed advertising, and Meta shelved similar plans in 2020. However, with 1.5 billion daily users of the Updates tab, the company sees clear monetization potential.

Of course, the strategy could easily backfire in privacy-conscious markets like Europe, where users consider WhatsApp a messaging tool rather than a content platform. As it stands though, users who stick to messaging won't notice any changes.

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Top Rated Comments

Havalo Avatar
15 weeks ago

The ads won't appear in personal chats or use encrypted message content for targeting. Instead, WhatsApp said it will rely on basic information like location, language, and channel follows to serve relevant ads.
For now until Zucky becomes a little more greedy.
Score: 25 Votes (Like | Disagree)
AusMness Avatar
15 weeks ago
and people wonder why iMessage / RCS is so much more common in NA
Score: 20 Votes (Like | Disagree)
iZac Avatar
15 weeks ago
No adverts in the chat section yet. Soon they’ll turn WhatsApp into the awful ad congested mess of Facebook Messenger
Score: 20 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Ipadonly1 Avatar
15 weeks ago
Fellow Europeans, can we all just please use iMessage/RCS?
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
FSMBP Avatar
15 weeks ago

If messages are end to end encrypted, how can they ever be used for advertising?
I'm sure your phone number is somehow connected to a Meta service (Facebook, IG) or your friend's contact list is uploaded there...so they can build a shadow profile of you in WhatsApp and advertise using that info.

I know people hate iMessage internationally, but I prefer to use that. I despise Meta and glad I quit using them years ago; social media apps that create artificial connections.
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
bob24 Avatar
15 weeks ago

If messages are end to end encrypted, how can they ever be used for advertising?
Even if the actual message content is encrypted, they still have all the metadata: which cities/countries you are in, when you are online, which WhatsApp groups you are part of, which people you communicate with the most at specific times and locations, etc. And with cookies they can also cross-reference this information with your activity on third-party Apps and websites which have Meta ads and services embedded in them.

It makes it pretty easy to infer who are you family members, friends, colleagues, and other social groups, and cross reference centres of interest within those groups.
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)