WhatsApp, the free Messenger app owned by Facebook, has announced that the app which was ad-free until now, will finally feature advertisements via WhatsApp Status stories in 2020.
WhatsApp will no longer be ad-free
The app was hugely popular due to the fact that it was ad-free and had a great number of features but now Facebook has decided to include ads onto their App.
During the annual Facebook Marketing Summit in, Netherland, the company stated,
“WhatsApp will bring Stories Ads in its status product in 2020”
The speculations regarding the appearance of ads in the app were apparent and now ultimately ads will make their way via WhatsApp Status, just like Instagram stories.
Coming Soon to @WhatsApp…
– WhatsApp Status (Stories) to get Ads in 2020
– WhatsApp for Businesses to get richer messaging format options
– WhatsApp product catalog to be integrated with existing Facebook Business Manager catalog
h/t + 📸 @Olivier_Ptv
at #FMS19 pic.twitter.com/Z5LsbADNbP— Matt Navarra (@MattNavarra) May 21, 2019
The WhatsApp status feature lets you share an entire screen full of text, photos, videos and animated GIFs that last up to 24 hours.
And Just like the status, ads too will occupy full-screen real-estate. You can swipe up for more information concerning the product or service depicted in the ads.
What kind of ads you see would be powered by Facebook’s own advertising conformity.
This move of showing ads has left the co-founders of the app unhappy. they have left the company and one of them, Brian Acton, said that Mark is “Money Hungry” and that “Targeted advertising makes me unhappy”
It will be entertaining to see how users accommodate to this new change.