For the first time since its launch in 2009, WhatsApp is introducing ads.

Yes, you read that correctly. No more will the messaging app with a reputation for an ad-free experience be void of promotional material.

The only catch? The ads are slowly being introduced and will be confined to the “Updates” tab.

What does that mean for the average user?

If you’ve used WhatsApp primarily for one-on-one messaging and group chats, you probably won’t notice a thing. Meta, the parent company of WhatsApp, says the new ads are being introduced slowly and will only appear in the Updates tab, which is where users view Status updates or follow Channels around interest, news, or entertainment.

The idea is to bring a level of balance to the experience: Monetization without forsaking privacy.

The world’s second-largest social media company is creating a world where ads are a part of a broader, balanced experience. Here’s how they’re introducing them in a manner that will keep personal chats ad-free.

Ads must appear, but in a way that doesn’t feel intrusive

One major selling point of WhatsApp was always its absence of ads. There’s nothing worse than opening an app to send a quick message and seeing an ad first. So, Meta is making sure that doesn’t happen by keeping ads out of conversational experiences. Instead, they’ll be in non-conversational spaces. As users scroll through their status updates, they’ll now see some posts from advertisers. They can look like any other status story — a photo, video, or text — except this time, it comes from a business. They can reply to the ads and open a conversation directly on WhatsApp.

Then there are Promoted Channels — another new type of ad. Channel admins can pay to increase the visibility of their channels. It’s a feature designed to allow businesses and content creators to grow their audiences organically on the app.

Finally, there’s a subscription model, which seems like an experimental effort. Yes, you read that right. WhatsApp is giving businesses the ability to charge users a monthly fee for exclusive content. Picture a cooking channel that gives its members access to premium recipes or alerts to its paid subscribers.

The idea of ads showing up on WhatsApp — a platform that has always been considered the pinnacle of privacy — is concerning. But there’s some nuance here. Meta says it’s being very careful.

For instance, Meta will only target ads based on “non-personalized signals” like your country, city, language, age range, and phone settings. Additionally, they’ll look at how you interact with content inside Status and Channels. For example, which channels you follow, what you engage with, and how you respond to the ads.

Remember, your private messages remain encrypted and untouched.

Some overlap between WhatsApp and other Meta platforms (like Facebook and Instagram) is inevitable — if you choose to link your WhatsApp account to Meta’s Accounts Center. That’s turned off by default. However, if you enable it, you’re allowing Meta to use activity across all its apps to serve ads to you.

Meta will give you some control over this process. You can learn why a particular ad is showing up, hide or report it, and control your preferences around ad topics or advertisers.

All this to say, it’s been a long time coming for Meta to introduce this kind of change

It’s no secret that the parent company has been introducing the next era of WhatsApp, and this is one part of that.

For a while now, most of the company’s revenue came from its Business Platform and “Click-to-WhatsApp” ads on Facebook and Instagram, which allow businesses to start a conversation with potential customers directly through an ad.

In April, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg even referenced that the WhatsApp Business Platform was seeing significant growth, although there was a clear intent to get more out of WhatsApp’s 2 billion+ users.

During a product briefing with TechCrunch, Alice Newton Rex, VP of Product at WhatsApp, said the “next natural evolution” is enabling ads in the Updates tab. “It’s where people are already discovering companies on WhatsApp,” she said. “Now they’ll be able to learn more about those businesses.”

It’s also a response to customer demand. “That was what we were increasingly hearing from businesses,” Rex added.

There are several other examples of platforms following this model. Discord, which recently became the newest platform to run ads, did so last year. Then there’s Reddit, a social hub that made its first profit due to advertiser interest. Even apps with community-first features like video chatting, group messaging, and more are seeing the limits of social’s original vision and are being dragged into the ad economy.

It’s the economic state of the world. The global economy is unpredictable, and it’s likely that advertisers will pull back on ad spend as well. For Meta, 98% of its recent revenue came from advertising. Therefore, it’s natural for WhatsApp — which has always been seen as an untapped goldmine — to see a shift in direction.

They’ll be in the “Updates” tab, which means you won’t see them in your personal conversations.

To be clear, this is the first time since its inception that WhatsApp will run ads.

As such, this shift has always been part of Meta’s plan to monetize its massive platform.

They’ll only be in the Updates tab and users will be able to learn why an ad is being shown, hide or report it, and manage preferences around topics or advertisers.