Many of us have lost count of how many times WhatsApp has publicly denied its intentions to implement ads. Apparently not anymore, as WhatsApp’s CEO, Will Cathcart, hinted that the messaging app may soon feature advertisements.
Although Cathcart did not provide a timeframe, he did mention that ads might appear throughout the app, according to TechCrunch.
In an interview with Brazilian media, Cathcart said WhatsApp has no plans to show ads in the main inbox but did not rule out showing ads in other places within the app.
“The reason I qualified [sic] the answer is that there could be ads in other places — channels or status. For example, channels might charge people to subscribe, they might be exclusive to paid members or the owners might want to promote the channel. But, no, we won’t put ads in your inbox,” Cathcart said.
In September, WhatsApp denied stories making the rounds that it was planning to introduce ads.
The denial became necessary following a Financial Times report that Meta was planning to introduce ads to WhatsApp.
Reports of ads on WhatsApp just would not go away; these reports have continued to resurface despite strong denials by Meta.
This FT story is false. We aren’t doing this, Cathcart said via his X handle.
In other news, WhatsApp has introduced a new search feature for the Updates tab. The new search feature, which streamlines the process of looking for status updates and channels, is already available to some beta testers.
After installing the most recent WhatsApp beta for iOS 23.21.1.72 update, as shown in the screenshot, a search bar for the Updates tab has been added for some beta testers.
Given that it might be challenging to locate particular channels among an expanding list of followed updates, the search feature also enables users to search for their followed channels directly within the new search bar.
Users now have the option to collapse the section listing recommended channels if they have decided not to follow any channels.
The feature becomes necessary considering how complicated it was to search for status updates with the new Updates tab. With the new updates, however, WhatsApp is finally bringing back the search for followed channels.
