Meta has announced major changes to WhatsApp’s Updates tab, introducing three new features aimed at helping creators, organizations, and businesses grow their presence and monetize content.

Meta, in a statement released on Monday, revealed that the Updates tab, which houses both Status and Channels, will now support Channel Subscriptions for exclusive updates, Promoted Channels for discoverability, and Ads in Status for business visibility.

These features mark a significant expansion of WhatsApp’s business model and represent its most ambitious move yet into monetizing the platform.

“We’ve been talking for years about how to build a business on WhatsApp in a way that doesn’t interrupt personal chats. We believe the Updates tab is the right place to introduce that,” Meta said.

Reaching 1.5 billion users 

Meta said over 1.5 billion people use the Updates tab daily to view friends’ Status updates or follow creators and public figures via Channels.

With this massive user base, the company sees a clear opportunity to introduce business-friendly tools.

• Explaining the three features, Meta stated that with the Channel Subscriptions, WhatsApp users can now subscribe to their favorite channels, such as news outlets, creators, or sports teams, to receive exclusive content for a monthly fee.
• Through Promoted Channels, it said WhatsApp will begin suggesting new Channels to users based on their interests. This gives creators and businesses their first paid tool to grow visibility on the app.
• For Ads in Status, it said businesses will be able to place targeted ads within the Status feature, similar to Instagram Stories, allowing users to discover new products or services and chat directly with advertisers.

Users’ privacy 

Meta emphasized that the new features were built with WhatsApp’s core value of privacy intact.

“Your personal messages, calls, and groups remain end-to-end encrypted, and that includes your Status updates. We’ll never sell or share your phone number with advertisers,” Meta assured.

“To show ads in Status or Channels you might care about, we’ll use limited info like your country or city, language, the Channels you’re following, and how you interact with the ads you see.  

“For people who have chosen to add WhatsApp to Accounts Center, we’ll also use your ad preferences and info from across your Meta accounts.  

“We will never sell or share your phone number to advertisers. Your personal messages, calls, and groups you are in will not be used to determine the ads you may see,” the company stated.

Meta said the features will be rolled out gradually over the coming months, and Channel admins or businesses eager to get started can already access more information via official WhatsApp Business resources.