Meta has officially introduced ads to WhatsApp, marking a major shift for the messaging app.

The move, announced on June 17, comes 11 years after Facebook’s $19 billion acquisition of the platform.

WhatsApp’s original founders, who had long opposed advertising, had maintained the app’s ad-free experience.

However, Meta’s latest decision introduces “status ads” that will appear exclusively in the app’s “Updates” tab, ensuring they remain separate from users’ personal conversations.

These new ads will allow businesses to engage with users directly through WhatsApp’s messaging features, encouraging interaction.

The Updates tab, which was introduced in June 2023, is used for sharing temporary content such as pictures, videos, and text that disappear after 24 hours, similar to Instagram Stories.

Meta has emphasised that users’ private messages and calls will continue to be encrypted and remain unaffected by the new advertising approach.

This development is part of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s larger strategy to transform WhatsApp into a major business tool. WhatsApp now boasts over 3 billion monthly users, including more than 100 million in the United States.

Alongside status ads, Meta will begin monetising WhatsApp’s Channels feature. This feature enables people and organisations to send broadcast messages to followers, separate from personal chats.

Businesses can now pay to boost their visibility in search results within WhatsApp, and administrators of Channels will also be able to charge users a subscription fee for exclusive content.

Meta plans to take a 10% cut of these subscriptions in the future, although the company has clarified that it will not immediately earn from these fees.

WhatsApp’s transition to a revenue-generating platform has been long anticipated.

While Meta does not release WhatsApp’s specific revenue figures, analysts estimate that the app has previously earned between $500 million and $1 billion from business tools and services that enable companies to message customers directly.

This move to integrate ads into WhatsApp represents a significant pivot for a company whose founders had voiced strong opposition to advertising. Jan Koum and Brian Acton, the co-founders of WhatsApp, had left Meta after clashes over its advertising ambitions.

Despite their resistance, WhatsApp’s transformation reflects Meta’s broader efforts to grow its advertising reach, particularly following the company’s acquisition of Instagram and its ongoing battle with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over antitrust concerns.

By introducing ads in WhatsApp’s Updates tab, Meta aims to reduce disruption to users, with the goal of keeping their personal communications private while expanding its advertising model.