After years of providing free services without any bells attached, WhatsApp is now going to start showing ads on the popular chat app. To be clear, users will only see ads on the Status screen — the app’s take on Instagram’s Stories.

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.

Elsewhere, Google has recently been ramping up its campaign against ad blockers, blocking some users from watching YouTube videos and preventing playback. In the most recent update, the company is reportedly slowing down videos for users with ad blockers installed on their devices.

Curtis said that when she first signed on as the spokesperson for Activia, “My agents and lawyers and many friends questioned why I would do such a thing.”

For now, the ads will only appear on WhatsApp's Updates tab, where users can update their status and access channels or groups targeting specific interests they may want to follow. In its announcement of the ads, parent company Meta claimed that placing ads under Updates means that the ads won’t “interrupt personal chats.”

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