Last year, WhatsApp announced that ads would show up in due time. What followed were trials in selected regions worldwide. Now the company wrote in its Threads account that ads are available globally. In the future, you will see ads and sponsored content in various areas of the app.
WhatsApp Includes Advertising in Status Messages and Channels
Visible advertising is currently limited to the News section in WhatsApp. You will not see ads in your chats, calls, or groups. In the announcement, the company stated personal chats are end-to-end encrypted and cannot be viewed by anyone else. Rather, the Meta app is limited to advertising in statuses and channels.
If you were to scroll through your contacts’ status messages in the future, you will come across ads more and more often. As you can see in the image, WhatsApp makes it clear when advertising. The format is similar to ads Meta has been using on Instagram Stories for a while now.
WhatsApp also relies on sponsored content for channels. Channels from interested operators can be specifically highlighted here. This move aims to funnel interested parties in the content to subscribe to the channel.
How to Hide Advertising
Thankfully, WhatsApp provides the option to hide ads from the respective provider via an option in the three-dot menu if the ads are too intrusive. For those living in Europe, there is also a subscription that allows you to opt out of advertising.
In your WhatsApp account settings, you can also see which ads you have seen from which provider. You can also hide these in the future if you desire.
