ISTANBUL

Meta announced it will introduce ads and subscription options to its popular WhatsApp messaging platform, according to a statement.

The firm, best known as Facebook’s parent company, said the updates will be implemented gradually in the coming months to support business and organizational growth.

"People really want to chat to businesses on their own terms, and they want to do it in a place where they already spend their time, which is on WhatsApp," said Nikila Srinivasan, Meta’s vice president of product management, as reported by CBS News on Monday.

Ads will appear in the "Updates" tab, where users can tap statuses to chat with businesses.

Meta said users who only chat with friends and family “will see no change” to their experience.

Channel administrators will soon be able to offer paid subscriptions and promote their content to WhatsApp’s 1.5 billion users.

“For the first time, channel admins have a way to increase their channels’ visibility,” the company said. A spokesperson told CBS that Channels will stay free for users.

Meta said it will use "limited info like your country or city, language, the Channels you’re following and how you interact with the ads you see" for ad targeting, while emphasizing that personal messages and group chats will not be used for this purpose.