The introduction of advertising represents Meta's effort to monetize Whatsapp's massive user base of over two billion monthly active users. Industry analysts have long speculated that Meta would eventually bring advertising to Whatsapp given its scale and engagement rates. The timeline for these features was not specified in the announcement.

The company stressed that users who only use WhatsApp for personal messaging will see no changes to their experience, as all new features are confined to the Updates tab that can

They will appear in only one part of the Meta-owned messaging service, it said. The move is potentially lucrative, while raising questions about user privacy.