WhatsApp announced yesterday that it will now show ads from businesses through its Stories-like feature, months after adding an unnecessary floating AI button to the main chat interface. In response,

As per Meta's Newsroom, advertisements will appear only in the "Updates" tab — a separate tab at the bottom of the app, which showcases both "Channels" and "Status" features. Users can subscribe to friends and other public channels, and post statuses of their own, akin to Instagram 's subscription and "Stories" features.

The cofounders of WhatsApp resisted ads in the app for years, including after the company was acquired by Meta for $22 billion in 2014. Brian Acton and Jan Koum left the company in 2017 and 2018, respectively, and on Monday Meta introduced ads in the “Status” feature as well as sponsored Channels in the the “Updates” tab of WhatsApp.

WhatsApp is rolling out ads. In an update on Monday, Meta announced that it will now show ads from businesses through its Stories-like status feature.

Elsewhere, Google has recently been ramping up its campaign against ad blockers, blocking some users from watching YouTube videos and preventing playback. In the most recent update, the company is reportedly slowing down videos for users with ad blockers installed on their devices.

Meta Platforms Inc., the owner of Facebook and Instagram, is pushing deeper into AI-generated advertisements in a bid to make it cheaper and simpler for marketers to craft their messages.

Meta platforms such as Instagram have marketed AI tools that let users create sexually explicit images of real people.

After years of providing free services without any bells attached, WhatsApp is now going to start showing ads on the popular chat app. To be clear, users will only see ads on the Status screen — the app’s take on Instagram’s Stories.