Recently, there was a rumor that claimed that WhatsApp I wanted to start using advertising due to pressures from the Met to increase revenue. The source of this information was the Financial Times, an online medium that actually carries quite a lot of weight, so much so that it has almost 300,000 followers on the social network “X” (the old Twitter) alone.

This source noted that this movement was still in its early stages, meaning that it was being “explored” by the WhatsApp team and that they had not yet made a final decision. It is not the first time that there has been talk about the possibility of this application using advertisements, in fact, the possibility of charging for it was even considered, but all this information was never fulfilled, and therefore They became false rumors.

Head of WhatsApp Will Cathcart denied the information from the Financial Time, in an emphatic way, because they said it was false and that they were not going to introduce advertising. Of course, that doesn’t mean they haven’t considered it on more than one occasion, and it’s not an absolute no, it just means there’s always a chance they’ll change their mind at some point.

For example, think about what happened Messenger and how it displays ads. It would not be unreasonable that this model could be implemented in a similar way to WhatsApp in the short, medium or long term. We already know that ultimately revenue rules, and the moment Meta decides that WhatsApp needs to be more profitable, there will be no going back on that front. The same rumor also surfaced a few years ago and was eventually dismissed.

However, a move of this type could end up being counterproductive and at a level that is hard to predict, even though it is clear that This would cause many users to leave the platform and use other alternatives like Telegram, For example. For now, it has to be acknowledged that WhatsApp has managed to remain completely free and ad-free since its inception, and it looks like it will continue to do so, at least for now.

To be fair, WhatsApp It has improved a lot since its launch, which is one of the best apps of its kind today and is full of features, so it would be understandable if Meta wanted to increase its revenue. About a year ago, we dedicated a special article to this topic, where we gave you ten tips on how to use WhatsApp like a pro.

That said, I think it’s interesting to take this opportunity to ask you a question. If WhatsApp started using an advertising model to increase its profitability, would you be willing to accept it and continue using it, or would you switch to another app? It is clear to me I would still use it if my most important contacts don’t want to go to another app because in this case the majority rules. We read each other in the comments.