After the tech giant announced it would begin to include ads in WhatsApp’s Updates tab, which is used by roughly 1.5 million people per day, Signal president Meredith Whittaker took to X to lure users to her messaging tool: “Use Signal,” she wrote. “We promise, no AI clutter, no surveillance ads—whatever the rest of the industry does.”

After years of providing free services without any bells attached, WhatsApp is now going to start showing ads on the popular chat app. To be clear, users will only see ads on the Status screen — the app’s take on Instagram’s Stories.

WhatsApp announced yesterday that it will now show ads from businesses through its Stories-like feature, months after adding an unnecessary floating AI button to the main chat interface. In response,

WhatsApp is testing ads in Status and paid channel subscriptions, all inside the Updates tab. Private messages remain encrypted and ad-free.

End-to-end encryption is still guaranteed, and Meta also said that if users only use the app to call or message their contacts, there will be “no change to [the] experience at all,” though for many, this promise simply isn’t enough.

It’s official, WhatsApp ’s latest update is bringing ads to the platform.

WhatsApp Ads face no apparent legal pushback in terms of privacy norms, said industry experts while privacy advocates argued ads still violate the privacy principles on which the app was created.

While privacy concerns have made monetizing the app a challenge, Meta is again betting on ads to address its revenue goals.