Bad news if you regularly use WhatsApp, because the messaging service is expanded with advertisements. Unfortunately, users cannot disable it.
WhatsApp gets ads
Do you regularly use WhatsApp? In that case you will soon see a big change in the messaging service, because WhatsApp will show advertisements for the first time. Meta, the parent company behind WhatsApp, has announced that it will add advertisements to the application. These advertisements are shown automatically and cannot be switched off by users. It had been clear for some time that WhatsApp wanted to introduce advertisements, but now Meta has officially announced it.
The advertisements are now shown between the status updates in WhatsApp. This is a separate tab, where photos and videos remain visible for one day. There you will find updates of contacts, channels and companies that you follow. WhatsApp adds to this tab, which you see between the status updates of contacts, channels and companies. Instagram and Facebook already show advertisements in a similar way.
This data is used
From now on, companies have the option of submitting advertisements to WhatsApp for a fee. Which advertisements are ultimately shown varies per user, because that is based on collected data. According to Meta, to show an advertisement, the language and country of the user are in any case looked at. Based on this data, WhatsApp then shows advertisements.
According to Meta, other data from users is not shared with advertising companies. This means that the content of the conversations on WhatsApp are not used to personalize advertisements. This is also not possible, because chats end-to-end are encrypted. WhatsApp cannot therefore view or use the content of these conversations for advertising purposes. Which channels you follow does affect the advertisements that are shown.
Complaints in three ways
In the ‘Updates’ tab, WhatsApp adds advertisements in three ways. The messaging service introduces paid channel subscriptions. At a monthly company you will receive exclusive updates a channel. It is still unclear how high this monthly amount will be. In addition, companies can pay WhatsApp from now on, to promote their own channels in the messaging service.
Promote channels appear higher in the list of all channels on WhatsApp. Under this channel with ‘sponsored’ is indicated that it is a promotion. Do you regularly view all status updates in one go? That will take longer soon, because you will see advertisements from WhatsApp in between. Companies can promote products or other matters for a fee between these status updates.
Advertisements rolled out worldwide
Meta has indicated that telephone numbers remain protected and not being shared with advertisers. Do you regularly use the tab with ‘updates’ in WhatsApp? In that case you will probably see advertising soon. About 1.5 billion people use the tab every day, where WhatsApp is now going to show advertisements. Meta now adds advertising to WhatsApp worldwide, usually rolling out new features takes a few weeks.
Whatsapp does not show any ads in (group) conversations for the time being. It is still unclear whether that will change in the future. WhatsApp now adds advertising to the tab with status updates, it is quite possible that the advertisements will later come to more places in the app. These advertisements cannot be switched off, so that the message service can no longer be used advertising free of advertising.
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