Overview

• Since July 22, select beta testers have begun seeing ads and subscription prompts in the Updates tab while core chats remain unchanged
• Personalized ads draw only on limited on-platform data such as location, language settings and channel interactions, and WhatsApp will never sell phone numbers to advertisers
• Channel operators can set monthly subscription fees for exclusive content with WhatsApp taking a roughly 10 percent commission on sales
• Private and group chats continue to be ad-free and fully end-to-end encrypted under the new monetization model
• WhatsApp is also piloting an on-device message reminder feature that uses a bell icon to schedule local notifications without transmitting data to Meta servers