They will appear in only one part of the Meta-owned messaging service, it said. The move is potentially lucrative, while raising questions about user privacy.

The introduction of advertising represents Meta's effort to monetize Whatsapp's massive user base of over two billion monthly active users. Industry analysts have long speculated that Meta would eventually bring advertising to Whatsapp given its scale and engagement rates. The timeline for these features was not specified in the announcement.

"Meta's trying to turn WhatsApp into a platform without users realising it and if they move too fast or it starts to feel like another ad network, people might disengage or maybe