WhatsApp head Will Cathcart has confirmed that the messaging platform owned by Meta is working on showing ads to its billions of users. However, Cathcart clarified that ads won’t appear in users’ private inboxes.
In an interview with Brazilian publication Folha De S.Paulo, Cathcart said “When people open their inbox, they don’t want to see advertising.”
Instead, advertisements and promotions may show up in features like Status and the newer Channels.
“The reason I qualified the answer is that there could be ads in other places — channels or statuses. For instance, Channels might charge people to subscribe, they might be exclusive to paid members, or the owners might want to promote the channel. But, no, we won’t put ads in your inbox,” Cathcart told the publication.
This confirmation comes just weeks after Cathcart denied a Financial Times report claiming WhatsApp was planning to host ads on the platform.
WhatsApp parent company Meta first considered integrating ads into the Status feature back in 2018, but postponed plans in 2020 likely due to backlash over monetizing user data.
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WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton even voiced disagreement with the move, telling Forbes in 2018: “I sold my users’ privacy to a larger benefit. I made a choice and a compromise. And I live with that every day.”
It’s still unclear when exactly ads will start appearing in Status and Channels, or how WhatsApp will target them considering chats are end-to-end encrypted.
Cathcart did not provide a timeline but reiterated that the messaging experience itself will remain ad-free. This likely aims to assuage users worried about seeing ads mixed into private conversations.
By focusing monetization efforts on publicly shared content in Status and Channels instead of private messages, WhatsApp appears to be taking a more nuanced approach to balancing revenues with user experience.
