WhatsApp, the world’s most popular messaging platform, will no longer be free from advertisements.
The company has hinted that ads may be added to WhatsApp very soon.
Will Cathcart, head of WhatsApp, said this during an interview.
He said that advertisements can be added to different sections of WhatsApp.
He added that ads could appear in features such as statuses and channels, but did not specify when this would be possible.
Advertisements will not be included in the inbox or messaging features, he said.
He said that channel operators can charge monthly fees from their followers and also display advertisements within their channels.
Note that the Meta-owned messaging app has been considering adding ads for years.
In 2018, the company hinted that ads could be added to the Status feature.
But the project was shelved in 2020 as the company feared a backlash from privacy-conscious users.
But now after 3 years, the head of WhatsApp has once again hinted at adding ads to the messaging app.
Interestingly, a report in the Financial Times in September 2023 claimed that the messaging platform was considering ways to add ads to increase revenue.
But at that time the head of WhatsApp denied it in an X (Twitter) post saying that we are not doing this.
Keep in mind that in 2014 Meta (then the name of the company was Facebook) bought WhatsApp for 19 billion dollars.
Since then there have been several speculations about the inclusion of advertisements in the messaging app.