Meta to boost profits by rolling out advertisements on WhatsApp... less than two years after denying it
The free messaging app, owned by Mark Zuckerberg 's firm Meta, will roll out ads to all its users 'slowly over the next several months', regardless of what country they're in.
However, the plan has gone down badly with people on social media, being described as 'dumb' and the suggestion that it's time to buy an old-school Nokia cell.
Comments from furious users included 'dumbest idea ever'; 'time to switch to Telegram'; 'Bye bye Meta, may you loose every Whatsapp user you had in the past and get a very hard negative hit in your revenues.'
While another said: 'WhatsApp is bringing ads. Its time to get back to Nokia 3310.'
Meta revealed the controversial update in a blog post on its website, but said that advs will not 'interrupt your chats', nor will it be binning end-to-end encryption.
For now, the ads will only appear in WhatsApp Status - the feature released in 2017 that lets users share photos and videos that disappear after 24 hours.
But James Bore, tech expert at consultancy Bores Group, thinks it's a matter of time before ads come to the rest of WhatsApp.
'WhatsApp is owned by the same company as Facebook,' he told MailOnline.
'Their history shows that they will cram in ever more prevalent and ever more intrusive ads into every aspect of every platform they can, regardless of how it negatively impacts user experience.'
WhatsApp Status is found in 'Updates' tab at the bottom of the app, next to the three other tabs - 'Chats', 'Communities' and 'Calls'.
Meta says: 'The growing popularity of the Updates tab makes this the right place for these experiences, in a way that doesn't interrupt your chats.
'If you only use WhatsApp to chat with friends and loved ones, there will be no change to your experience at all.'
WhatsApp admitted it will take user information such as their country, city and language, plus how they interact with the ads, to show certain ads that they 'might care about'.
But it stressed that it will still not able to read your messages - so it will not be sending you targeted ads based on what you send to friends and family.
It will also 'never sell or share your phone number to advertisers'.
The company added: 'Nothing changes about people's personal chats, which remain end-to-end encrypted and are not used for ads.
'Your personal messages, calls and groups you are in will not be used to determine the ads you may see.'
He jokingly added 'Also it looks like you misspelled Brian's name,' referring to Brian Acton, co-founder of Whatsapp'
Meta purchased WhatsApp in 2014 , but it has so far resisted using advertising to tap into new revenue steams.
As recently as 2023, WhatsApp denied reports it was even considering the idea.
'False. We aren't doing this,' WhatsApp boss Will Cathcart posted not even two years ago on X in response to a report from the Financial Times.
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