WhatsApp's upcoming update will make it annoying
Parent company Facebook is looking to monetise WhatsApp through advertisements.
Up until now, WhatsApp has been working to make for a highly convenient communications app with several features added over its course of life. In fact, the platform has been so widely adopted that WhatsApp came out with a dedicated app for business users a short while ago. All while making it more appealing, the developers are made sure they don’t annoy their users with ads or selling their privacy. However, that could be about to change soon under the hands of Facebook.
If some reports are to be believed, then WhatsApp could start pushing advertisements to start making profits from the platform. WABetaInfo has even said that the company has been testing the new version that will show ads in the Stories section for iOS devices. The ads will be shown in a similar fashion as they are done on Instagram, i.e. as content in the form of stories.
What’s even more terrible is that these advertisements will be targeted to an individual, which means Facebook will be actually reading your messages and throw related ads on your account. As usual, brands will have to pay for any content they push to an individual’s account.
Facebook is also developing an analytics system that will let advertisers gather data from their expenditures and hone the content accordingly. Therefore, you will see ads according to the topics you chat on WhatsApp and over the course of time, the ads will become more specific to what you talk about frequently.
This was the main reason WhatsApp co-founders Brian Acton and Jan Koum left. WhatsApp was originally conceived to be an ad-free messenger platform. However, Facebook has been looking to earn profits off the platform, considering its one of the most highly downloaded messaging apps in both the iOS and Android universe.
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