Facebook's controversial plan to sell ads in WhatsApp has been put on the back-burner, according to a new report today from The Wall Street Journal.

facebookwhatsapp

WhatsApp in recent months disbanded a team that had been established to find the best ways to integrate ads into the service, according to people familiar with the matter. The team's work was then deleted from WhatsApp's code, the people said.

Plans to monetize WhatsApp were floated no longer after Facebook acquired the messaging service in February 2014 for $22 billion. WhatsApp co-founder Jan Koum and Brian Acton continually pushed back against the plans, which were a factor that ultimately led both men to quit the company.

Prior to leaving, Koum and Acton changed WhatsApp's terms of service to explicitly forbid displaying ads in the app, which complicated Facebook's future efforts to do so, according to WSJ's sources.

Facebook has changed its platforms' terms of service in the past, but introducing ads on WhatsApp would have required a formal notification of users, creating a potential public-relations problem for Facebook.

Still, Facebook hasn't completely given up on inserting ads into WhatsApp, and reportedly plans to add them to the app's Status feature "at some point." Status allows users to create short-lived posts similar to Instagram's Stories.

However, for now the focus is said to be on developing money-making features that enable businesses to communicate with customers and better manage those interactions.

Before the acquisition, WhatsApp was initially a paid-for app and later transitioned to a $0.99 annual subscription service. Facebook made the service free after buying it and later unveiled its own revenue-generating plans for the platform, which has 1.5 billion users globally.

Top Rated Comments

miflgr92 Avatar
68 months ago
WhatsApp and Instagram were both so much better before Facebook bought them. Every single change to both apps since Zuckerberg got ahold of them have been negative and not user-friendly. I really hope Facebook eventually goes the way of MySpace but I fear it is too engrained into society at this point :(
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
H3LL5P4WN Avatar
68 months ago

WhatsApp and Instagram were both so much better before Facebook bought them. Every single change to both apps since Zuckerberg got ahold of them have been negative and not user-friendly. I really hope Facebook eventually goes the way of MySpace but I fear it is too engrained into society at this point :(
Failbook will never be as good as MySpace was.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
TwoBytes Avatar
68 months ago
Whatsapp is one of those few most popular app in the world that hasn't got dark mode yet.
That's it, not related but I wanted to vent :)
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Sasparilla Avatar
68 months ago
Nice to see. I'm sure that won't be the end of it though, while monetizing people's WhasApp connections (who you message / call and when - selling that to company's and presumably governments) is good for some money, Facebook will come back at this again...its their repeated history as a Company.

Have to laugh at the iMessage attack in the comments, just out of the blue - wasn't even discussed in the article or prior comments. Privacy is much greater with iMessage or Signal and for alot of people that has value - especially when you don't know what your government is going to be like in 10 years (as we've seen in recent years in many countries).
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
akash.nu Avatar
68 months ago
If ads appear in Whatsapp I'll be pushing hard for all my friends and family to switch to Telegram. I already use it with a section of my friends and family and it's a superior UX IMO.



I don't use Instagram. But I'm a heavy user of Whatsapp. What's gotten worse? I've not really noticed anything negative in terms of day to day use.
I’ve abandoned WhatsApp the minute the founders left. Been on signal since and enjoying life!
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
CarpalMac Avatar
68 months ago

I’ve abandoned WhatsApp the minute the founders left. Been on signal since and enjoying life!
I left the moment Zucker "call me the messiah" berg got involved.

People target their privacy stick pointing posts at Google on here all the time and yet Facebook somehow seems to get almost a free pass. The things they do with data are far more insidious and sinister, IMO.

For example, I don't have an account but thanks to their snooping of my friends, they know about me.

https://www.vox.com/2018/4/20/17254312/facebook-shadow-profiles-data-collection-non-users-mark-zuckerberg

And that is just what we have heard about.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

maxresdefault

Apple Releases iOS 18.4 With Priority Notifications, Ambient Music, New Emoji and More

Monday March 31, 2025 10:03 am PDT by
Apple today released iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4, the fourth major updates to the iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 operating system updates that came out last year. iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4 come two months after Apple released iOS 18.3 and iPadOS 18.3. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. The new software can be downloaded on eligible iPhones and iPads over-the-air by going to...
iOS 19 Mock WWDC25 Feature

iOS 19 Expected to Run on These iPhones

Monday March 31, 2025 5:28 pm PDT by
iOS 19 will not be available on the iPhone XR, iPhone XS, or the iPhone XS Max, according a private account on social media site X that has accurately provided information on device compatibility in the past. The iPhone XR, iPhone XS, and iPhone XS Max all have an A12 Bionic chip, so it looks like iOS 19 will discontinue support for that chip. All other iPhones that run iOS 18 are expected...
iPhone 17 Pro 34ths Perspective

iPhone 17 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 10 New Features

Sunday March 23, 2025 10:00 am PDT by
While the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are not expected to launch until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of March 2025: Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone ...
AirPods Pro Firmware Feature

Apple Releases New Firmware for AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods 4

Monday March 31, 2025 11:27 am PDT by
Apple today released new firmware updates for all AirPods 4 and AirPods Pro 2 models. The new firmware is version 7E93, up from the 7B21 firmware that was installed on the AirPods Pro 2 and the 7B20 firmware available on the AirPods 4 and AirPods 4 with ANC. It is not immediately clear what new features or changes are included in the new firmware, but we'll update this article should we find ...
top stories 2025 03 29

Top Stories: WWDC 2025 Announced, iPhone 17 Pro and iOS 19 Rumors, and More

Saturday March 29, 2025 6:00 am PDT by
Apple's big developer event is a little over two months away, and rumors about what we can expect to see in Apple's next major operating system updates are becoming increasingly frequent. A public release of iOS 18.4 is also imminent with a number of updates and improvements, although we won't be getting the major Apple Intelligence Siri upgrades that had reportedly been planned for this...
iOS 19 visionOS UI Elements

Apple Codename Provides Clue About iOS 19's Rumored New Design

Sunday March 30, 2025 6:40 am PDT by
Multiple sources have claimed that iOS 19 will introduce a new design with more translucent buttons, menus, notification banners, and more, and there is now another clue that points towards this glass-like appearance. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman today said the new design project is codenamed "Solarium" internally. A solarium is a room with glass walls that allow in plenty of sunlight, so this...
macOS Sequoia Feature

Apple Releases macOS Sequoia 15.4 With Mail Categorization and More

Monday March 31, 2025 10:04 am PDT by
Apple today released macOS Sequoia 15.4, the fourth major update to the macOS Sequoia operating system that launched in September. macOS Sequoia 15.4 comes two months after the launch of macOS Sequoia 15.3. Mac users can download the ‌‌macOS Sequoia‌‌ update through the Software Update section of System Settings. It is available for free on all Macs able to run macOS 15. With...
Magic Mouse Green

What to Expect From the Magic Mouse 3

Saturday March 29, 2025 10:15 am PDT by
Apple is reportedly working on a new Magic Mouse. Below, we recap what to expect. The two key rumors for the Magic Mouse 3 so far include a relocated charging port, along with a more ergonomic design. It was briefly rumored that the Magic Mouse 3 would also feature voice control, but that was misinterpreted information. Relocated Charging Port While the Magic Mouse switched from...