WhatsApp is bringing ads to status as part of new feature rollouts on the messaging platform. These rollouts include channel subscriptions, promoted channels, and ads in status.
With channel subscriptions, WhatsApp users can support their favourite channel by subscribing to receive exclusive updates for a monthly fee. Promoted channels will assist users in discovering new channels that may interest them while browsing the directory. Additionally, this feature will enable admins to enhance their channel’s visibility.
The ads in the status feature will let users find new businesses and easily start a conversation with them from their status.
According to the messaging platform, these features are now being used by over 1.5 billion users daily. “We are encouraged by the enthusiasm and want to increase the support we provide to admins, organisations, and businesses that rely on this tab every day,” Meta said. “These new features will appear on the Updates tab, away from your chats, so if you are only using WhatsApp to chat, these changes do not affect you at all.”
WhatsApp noted that these features were built in the most private way possible, and personal messages, calls, and statuses will remain end-to-end encrypted, “meaning no one (not even us) can see or hear them.”
“To show ads in Status or Channels you might care about, we’ll use limited info like your country or city, language, the Channels you’re following, and how you interact with the ads you see. For people who have chosen to add WhatsApp to Accounts Centre, we’ll also use your ad preferences and info from across your Meta accounts,” it said.
The messaging platform highlighted that it will never sell or share users’ phone numbers to advertisers, and personal messages, calls and groups users are in will not be used to determine the ads they may see.
“We’ve been talking about our plans to build a business that does not interrupt your personal chats for years, and we believe the Updates tab is the right place for these new features to work,” it added.
BusinessDay
