Meta has announced it will begin displaying ads in WhatsApp’s “Status” section, part of the app’s Updates tab, marking the first instance of advertising inside the popular messaging platform.
The company is also introducing promoted channels and paid subscriptions for exclusive content, further transforming WhatsApp’s Updates tab into a monetization hub.
The changes were detailed in an announcement by Meta earlier today, positioning the new features as a way to help users “discover channels and products” while ensuring that personal chats remain untouched and end-to-end encrypted. According to Meta, these ads will rely on a limited dataset such as a user’s location, language, and in-app activity, with additional signals drawn from other Meta-owned platforms like Instagram and Facebook for those who have linked their accounts via Meta’s Accounts Center.
Meta acquired WhatsApp in 2014 and has since gradually integrated it more deeply into its broader ecosystem. The messaging app, originally a paid, ad-free service, is now used by 1.5 billion people daily. The new monetization strategy comes as Meta explores ways to make the platform profitable without interfering with the core messaging experience. The Updates tab, home to ephemeral “Status” posts and one-way “Channels,” has been selected as the zone for this commercial expansion.
WhatsApp’s move sparks concern
However, privacy watchdogs and legal experts are already raising red flags. The European non-profit noyb (None of Your Business), led by data privacy advocate Max Schrems, criticized the move as another attempt by Meta to circumvent EU privacy laws, particularly the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Digital Markets Act (DMA). Both frameworks emphasize the need for freely given user consent when platforms use personal data for advertising or link data across services.
noyb warns that Meta may replicate its controversial “Pay or Okay” model, which is already active on Instagram and Facebook, on WhatsApp. Under this model, users must either consent to personalized advertising or pay a subscription fee to maintain privacy, a system that regulators have called coercive and potentially illegal. Schrems argues that this model produces a consent rate of over 99% not through free choice, but by imposing prohibitively high costs on opting out, up to €119.88 annually in the EU.
“Meta is doing exactly the opposite of what EU law requires,” said Schrems in a statement, accusing the company of merging datasets and tracking users without genuine consent. He noted that while WhatsApp is not dominant in the U.S., it holds a commanding presence in the EU, making the implications of this data sharing particularly significant for European users.
Meta insists that WhatsApp’s personal messages, group chats, and calls remain encrypted and are never used to inform advertising. However, the use of activity from other Meta platforms, combined with ad interactions within WhatsApp itself, creates a system of cross-platform profiling that is worrying.
WhatsApp’s transformation into an ad-bearing platform is expected to roll out gradually over the coming months. Meanwhile, noyb has signaled its intent to challenge the rollout, stating that legal action is likely once Meta's implementation details become clearer. The group also anticipates that these developments may prompt a new wave of users to switch to privacy-focused messaging apps like Signal.
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