Meta is taking a bold step to monetise WhatsApp more aggressively, with two significant advertising tools now in beta: Status Ads and Promoted Channels. These features, currently rolling out with WhatsApp beta version 2.25.21.11 for select Android users, represent Meta’s deeper push into the ad-driven creator economy—a space already dominated by Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.
What’s New:
📢 Status Ads (Sponsored Status Updates)
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Business accounts can now insert sponsored content directly into users’ Status feeds.
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These ads will appear between normal updates from contacts, clearly marked as “Sponsored.”
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It functions much like Instagram Stories ads, but within WhatsApp’s ecosystem.
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Users retain ad control—they can block specific advertisers, ensuring those ads won’t appear again.
🔍 Promoted Channels
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Designed to give businesses and creators greater visibility in the WhatsApp directory.
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Promoted channels will show up above organic results, flagged with a “Sponsored” label.
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This system allows for paid prioritisation, helping channels grow their followers faster than via organic methods alone.
📊 Transparency Features
In an earlier beta (2.25.19.15), WhatsApp began testing a tool for downloading detailed ad activity reports. These reports show:
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Which ads you viewed
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Who the advertisers were
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When the ads were shown
This level of transparency is rare among major ad platforms, marking a user-centric approach to ad tracking.
🔒 Privacy Still Intact?
Meta emphasizes that ads will not appear in private chats. Both Status Ads and Promoted Channels are limited to public-facing spaces only—namely:
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Status feed
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Channel recommendations
No private messages are being scanned or interrupted, according to WhatsApp. This is meant to balance monetisation with the app’s long-held privacy promise, even as users grow wary of commercial content creeping into messaging apps.
💡 Why It Matters:
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For businesses and creators, this introduces a powerful new way to reach audiences on WhatsApp—especially in emerging markets where WhatsApp is often the primary communication tool.
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For everyday users, it might feel like another intrusion—but with blocking controls and transparency reports, Meta is clearly trying to soften the blow.
In short, Meta is gradually turning WhatsApp into a mini ad platform, not unlike Instagram—but with guardrails. Whether users embrace or resist this evolution will likely determine how far Meta pushes this monetisation model in future updates.
