827

WhatsApp is officially getting ads (www.theverge.com)

submitted 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

232 comments fedilink hide all child comments

WhatsApp is rolling out ads. In an update on Monday, Meta announced that it will now show ads from businesses through its Stories-like status feature.

Meta says it will tailor the ads to your interests by using “limited” information, including your country or city, language, the channels you follow, and how you interact with ads on the platform. You can also change your ad preferences from Meta’s Accounts Center.

This isn’t the only change Meta is making to WhatsApp. The company will also start showing promoted channels when you click on the Explore button to find new ones to follow. It’s also rolling out the ability to subscribe to channels to “receive exclusive updates” as well.

(page 4) 50 comments

sorted by: hot top new old

[-] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I wonder whether Meta will try to lock down cross platform access now.

Currently Beeper still works everywhere and EU'S DMA (Digital Markets Act) still has WhatsApp as gate keeper which is required to interpolate with other chat apps. However "WhatsApp stories" are entirely different from chat so that means they can block all of that and this is probably how Meta will approach future WhatsApp updates - more shit to lock people in WhatsApp that isnt directly chat related because thats the only way to show people ads.

[-] [email protected] 10 points 2 days ago

Uninstalled.

Luckily I/people I interact with never used it much.

[-] [email protected] 9 points 2 days ago

Glad I got out when I did

load more comments (1 replies)

[-] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago

through its Stories-like status feature.

Eh, I've only seen it because of a misclick

[-] [email protected] 7 points 2 days ago

For my the best choose is XMPP... More choices, federated, simple and very secure with Omemo. You don't have the security issues like you do in WhatsApp, Telegram or Matrix (who's principal server is in economic problems matrix.org). And Signal... Well it's a long journey and can take very bad turns cause is private and has big ties with the US and big corp, still is and option and you can use the fork Molly.

load more comments (2 replies)

[-] [email protected] 7 points 2 days ago

That must be the reason they’ve been putting out more ads about chats being secure between both chatters. A misdirection so they can personalize your ads to your conversations

[-] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago

whatsapp-free since 2023!

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

These ads on messaging services are out of control

so...... back to owl mail then?

load more comments

this post was submitted on 16 Jun 2025

827 points (98.7% liked)

Technology

71585 readers

3577 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

Follow the lemmy.world rules.
Only tech related news or articles.
Be excellent to each other!
Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
Politics threads may be removed.
No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.

Approved Bots

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]