this post was submitted on 16 Jun 2025

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831

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

submitted 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

233 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.

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 3 days ago

I literally just got my senior citizen dad off Skype and over to WhatsApp like 2 years ago... Ain't no way I can get him over to signal

[–] [email protected] 26 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Meta has been running ads claiming no one can read your WhatsApp messages, including them. For some reason, I'm not 100% sure about this. It's hard to imagine they can resist grabbing all that data for their AI somehow.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 3 days ago

Of course they fucking grab it. They have 45 backdoors with golden handles otherwise they're show the fucking source

[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 days ago (6 children)

I forgot WhatsApp existed.

Guess its shittier now.

Mhm. Yup.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

I hope Signal does this too!

- no one ever.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 days ago (5 children)

delta.chat

The enshittify proof alternative!

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Would signal also work?

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

...Electron inside.

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 3 days ago (5 children)

I’m more surprised it took them this long. Thankfully there are already many decent alternative messaging apps.

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 3 days ago (8 children)

This is one of the train that impossible for me to get off. It is very ubiquitous in my country to use whatsapp instead of text. I must suck it up I guess. 😅

[–] [email protected] 24 points 3 days ago (8 children)

A fair number of my contacts from countries where this is true also have Signal. If you don't, I suggest installing it and seeing how many people are there.

If it's hard to remember who uses what, start conversations from the contacts app instead of one of the messaging apps; in most cases it will tell you.

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Only shocking part of this is that it took them this long.

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 3 days ago (3 children)

Time to ditch WhatsApp

[–] [email protected] 30 points 3 days ago (2 children)

👆 mark that comment. I'm sure you'll write that again in a year or so

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

The best time to quit was 10 years ago. The second-best time is now.

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