WhatsApp on Monday announced that it will soon introduce advertisements and other paid features in a major shift for the messaging app, which has mostly remained ad-free since its launch.

The move marks WhatsApp’s most significant step toward monetisation since it was acquired by Meta in 2014.

The company said the new advertising features will be limited to the ‘Updates’ tab, which includes Channels and Status -- features that are used by over 1.5 billion people daily.