WhatsApp Confirms It Is Introducing In-App Ads In 2020

Ahh, remember the good ol' days when you could just click on WhatsApp and chat with your mates without seeing annoying adverts?

Well there's something we could soon find ourselves asking, as Facebook, who owns the platform, has confirmed that in-app ads are coming to WhatsApp in 2020.

The social network made the announcement at its Facebook Marketing Summit in the Netherlands this week, which gave details of the plans due to be rolled out next year.

Twitter/Matt Navarra

The ads will appear as part of the Statuses function, the app's equivalent of Instagram Stories, which allows users to post expirable photos and videos to their Status, added in February 2017.

Photos from the conference - shared by social media commentator Matt Navarra, and head of BeConnect Olivier Ponteville - show that the ads will take up the entire screen, similar to Stories, and will pop up intermittently when users are browsing their friends updates.

Mirroring Stories' model, users can then swipe up if they wish to learn more about the product being advertised.

WhatsApp seemed just about the only recess of our phone that we could click on without being inundated with ads, but we know that Facebook has been trying to monetise the world's largest messaging platform for a while now.

Despite having more than 1.5 billion monthly users worldwide, WhatsApp doesn't pull in any revenue for its parent company Facebook as it doesn't charge users a subscription fee.

PA

First steps to monetise the app came in August 2018, when the company rolled out new ways for customers to connect with business, including a shortcut button to start an instant conversation, and ability to have businesses send you information via WhatsApp.

Facebook also added ads for businesses which link out to WhatsApp, AdWeek report.

To be honest, we can't see the new WhatsApp ads affecting our GIF-sending game too much unless you're an avid 'Statuser'. Personally, we'd forgot the feature even existed.

We'll just go back to sending ugly selfies to our friends then, yeah?

Topics: Life News, Life

Ciara Sheppard

Ciara is a freelance journalist working for Tyla. After graduating from the University of Sussex, Ciara worked as a writer at GLAMOUR Magazine and later as the Assistant Editor of Yahoo Style UK.

@ciarasheppard