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.

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.”

The messaging service WhatsApp on Monday will begin to display ads for the first time as parent company Meta seeks to make business changes to the encrypted global platform.

WhatsApp stated that users' personal messages, calls, and statuses will remain end-to-end encrypted, and therefore cannot be used to show ads.

The new alpha feature, called Conversation Summary Add-ons, “dynamically integrates positive content from Reddit users directly below an advertiser’s creative, putting community conversations front-and-center in the user experience and blending AI-driven efficiency with real human perspectives,” according to a post from Reddit.

Feel like you're sitting through more ads on Prime Video? Well, it's not your imagination. The streamer has quietly

Democrats need relatable messengers and content targeting young men where they are, on gaming sites and social media, not a liberal Joe Rogan, says strategist Joe Jacobson.

Investigators with the Larimer County Sheriff's Office recently posed on local websites and online forums as underaged minors selling sexual acts. It was part of a 'sting' operation. The agency received interest from more than 100 responders.