This week, WhatsApp has introduced some new features for their Updates tab, which is home to both Channels and Status.
The Updates tab is the place for WhatsApp’s 1.5 billion users to discover something new on WhatsApp, and Meta now want to help admins, organizations, and businesses grow on WhatsApp.
This is being done in three ways:
- Channel subscriptions: Users will be able to support their favourite channel by subscribing to receive exclusive updates for a monthly fee.
- Promoted Channels: WhatsApp will help users discover new channels that might be interesting to them when they are looking through the directory. For the first time, admins have a way to increase their Channel’s visibility.
- Ads in Status: Users will be able to find a new business and easily start a conversation with them about a product or service they’re promoting in Status.
These new features will appear only on the Updates tab, away from users’ personal chats. This means that users who only use WhatsApp to chat with friends and loved ones will experience no change to their experience at all.
Statement from WhatsApp:
The following appeared on WhatsApp’s blog on 16 June 2025:
Like everything we do at WhatsApp, we’ve built these features in the most private way possible. Your personal messages, calls, and statuses remain end-to-end encrypted, meaning no one (not even us) can see or hear them.
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 that 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.
We’ve been talking about our plans to build a business that does not interrupt your personal chats for years and we believe the Updates tab is the right place for these new features to work.
