WhatsApp begins the release of advertising for channels and state, but in Europe in 2026

After years of resistance to advertising, last month WhatsApp It broke the delay by announcing the debut of promotional announcements within the app, in this case the sponsored channels and advertising within the state updates, on the lines of what has already happened in the stories Instagram.

Although the company then has clash with the GDPR (General Regulation on data protection) of the European Union which sanctioned the blocking of this novelty on accounts within the EU, at least until 2026.

In the past few hours, the First concrete clues of the implementation of advertising on WhatsApp; Here are the details.

On WhatsApp Beta they begin to land advertising, except in Europe

The novelty comes to us thanks to the work of the portal Wabetainfo Who shared some screens showing some UI side clues of the arrival of advertising on WhatsApp through some prompts of the app in which the function is actually explained.

As mentioned, the question concerns two specific areas of the app: state updates and channels, which are preparing to host respectively Status ads he is Promotted Channels.

Advertising in the States: Family format, sponsored content

While integrating perfectly into the visual flow, the status ads will clearly be labeled as sponsored content. It will be possible to jump with a simple swipe, just as it happens with unwanted stories.

Meta has also provided a control system that allows you to block specific advertiserspreventing them from showing further announcements in the future.

Sponsored channels

In addition to the states, the channels also prepare to welcome advertising. In this case, we are talking about what the destination calls Promotted Channelsthat is, public channels that pay to seem highly on the search page.

The goal is simple: to increase the visibility of new channels, making them more easily discovered by users who browse the various proposals. Here too, WhatsApp specifies that the sponsored channels will be accompanied by a label that reports the promotional character, to keep the relationship between Creator and the public transparent.

Interface side, to accompany the rollout of these new advertising tools, WhatsApp has also introduced a Information banner within the “Updates” card.

By clicking on the notice, you access a detailed explanation on the functioning of the ads, on which data are used and how to change the display preferences.

This explanation is shown in the form of a card within which it is possible to deepen the advertising choices of Meta, the information used to profile the user and much more.

This choice reflects the prudent setting of the company, aware of having to carefully manage a delicate passage for the identity of the platform itself.

Activity Report: Ads Chronology and Advanced Control

Another interesting novelty is represented by the new tool Activity Reporta function we told you about just under a month ago, designed to offer users a detailed overview of the ads displayed.

Through this section, it will be possible Consult the list of spots seenwith the date of viewing and name of the award.

Those who no longer want to see announcements from a certain brand can block it directly from the report or the state screen.

In addition WhatsApp also allows you to generate a archive in zip format containing the historic of advertising received, useful for those who want to keep or analyze the data locally. An option for the monthly automatic generation of the report is even foreseen.

The new function will be integrated into the “Request information on the account”, Already present in the app settings.

In this section it has been possible, for some time, to generate a report containing all the information on your WhatsApp account, including privacy settings, blocked numbers, associated devices and much more.

With the next update, this function will be enriched with a new option: the possibility of including a Report dedicated to the advertising listings displayed. The document may contain:

• A list of advertisements displayed,
• The dates and times in which they appeared,
• The names of the advertisers involved,
• Technical information relating to the format, duration and type of the ADV.

Once requested, as already happens with the other reports generated by the app, the report will be generated in standard zip format, downloadable and available also outside WhatsApp via any file manager or storage software.

Although, for now, we are not yet the recipients of advertising, the arrival of a function to view a complete report of the advertisements shown in these contexts therefore represents a consistent response to the growing request for transparency and control by users.

It is not only a question of transparency, but also of digital awareness. Knowing what advertisements are shown to us, and by those who, allows users to recognize any recurring patterns or even targeted campaigns.

No advertisements in the chats: the promise of encryption remains

A point on which Whatsapp wanted to underline is that these changes will not in any way affect the private and safe nature of the app. The advertisements, explain the developers, will remain confined to the “updates” section e they will never appear within personal or group conversations.

The development team also clarified that the selection of ads is based on general information, such as the approximate position (at the city or country level), the language of the app, the channels followed and the interaction with previous ads. No phone number is shared with advertisers, and the latter have no access to the private data of users.

In addition, those who connect WhatsApp to Half Accounts Center can allow the use of advertising preferences collected on other group apps, such as Facebook or Instagram. The option is deactivated by default but can be changed at any time.

At the moment, both the status ADS and the Promoted Channels are available only for a restricted number of Beta Tester, but the rollout is intended to gradually expand.

For the debut in the European Union, it is mentioned in the 2026except for changes.

How to download/update WhatsApp or try the news in preview

To download WhatsApp On an Android device or update the app to the latest version available, it will be sufficient to reach the app on the Google Play Store (via the Badge below) and make a tap on “Install” or “Update”.

Instead, in the event that you are eager to try the preview news that will arrive on the app in the future (such as the possibility of changing the theme of chats), you can contact the Beta App program (the page dedicated to the program can be reached via this link) and download WhatsApp Beta for Android.

In the event that the Beta program was temporarily fully, you can still proceed with the manual installation of the related apk files, downloadable from the portal Apk mirror (whose dedicated page can be reached by clicking on this link).