They say you can’t prevent the inevitable from happening. And this especially holds true this week. Speaking to several news outlets in India, WhatsApp Voice President Chris Daniels recently confirmed that the popular messaging app will soon get ads in the Status section.

According to Daniels, ads are set to become the service’s primary monetization mode and will provide an opportunity for businesses to reach (or most likely to annoy) people.

WhatsApp Status was introduced last year and since then has grown into a very popular feat, so it’s no wonder the parent company Facebook is targeting it. It’s similar to Stories on Instagram and Snapchat, and lets you add a combination of text, photos and video to your profile. These are encrypted by the messaging app, in the same fashion as a simple text would.

Once upon a time, WhatsApp used to charge users $1 per year for its service. However, Facebook acquired the company in 2014 and two years later it made the decision to make the app completely free.

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But ever since then, Facebook has been actively discussing various approaches to monetize the app, ads included. So the change has been long coming.

While Daniels didn’t offer a timeline for the development, reports have suggested WhatsApp users might start seeing ads in early 2019.

Source: PhoneArena