WhatsApp Ads Have Begun Showing Up—This Is How You Can Avoid Them

Meta has started rolling out advertisements on WhatsApp about a month after the announcement. According to a report, the latest Android beta build shows ads in WhatsApp Status and Channel updates, kicking off the company’s plan to monetise the world’s most popular chat app. The advertisements appear when you are jumping from one Status to another or visit a Channel for the latest posts.

How do WhatsApp ads look?

WhatsApp watchdog WABetaInfo has shared what look like screenshots of Meta’s implementation of advertisements in the latest beta version. WhatsApp has put up a clean and informative banner within a dedicated section in the app settings on how advertisements will work. “You’ll only see ads in Status & Channels, not in personal chats,” the banner reads, reassuring users that advertisements will be confined to only two functionalities. While that should allay the concerns around privacy and the company’s ability to see or read chat data, Meta has not said how the ads will be curated or tailored for each user.

“Your personal messages, calls & statuses are end-to-end encrypted and can’t be used to show you ads,” said WhatsApp. Currently, only businesses and WhatsApp Channel admins can push advertisements to share sponsored content. These ads appear between regular posts, with the report suggesting that they will fit “naturally into the familiar flow while still carrying a clear label that marks them as ads.” The Channels can now be promoted using sponsored content or a special placement in the channel directory to grab user attention.

How can you avoid them?

While the ads do not appear to be intrusive for now, Meta will let users choose whether they want to see ads or not. However, this works only as a tool to narrow down preferences. For instance, if you think an advertiser is spamming you with unnecessary or irrelevant ads, you can block that advertiser from the app settings. Doing so will stop ads from this particular advertiser, but it will not disable ads entirely. That means the new ads you will see will be from a different advertiser.

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