In the status section of the iOS version of Whatsapp, Facebook has planned to include ads and have started to work on the ad placement tools. The monetization of the world’s most popular messaging app has been a bone of contention between Facebook’s top management and Whatsapp founders. In 2017, when co-founder Brian Acton resigned, the other founder, Jan Koum, also parted ways in a high-profile departure earlier this year.

A popular WhatsApp tracker WABetaInfo tweeted that WhatsApp is currently working on implementing ads in the iOS application. In a recent interview organized by Forbes, Acton stated that Facebook already had plans in place to bring Facebook-enabled ads to WhatsApp before the app was acquired in 2014. This increased the debate about monetization and encryption, with Facebook trying its best to bring ads to the messaging application.

Another important note is that Facebook wants to link user account to their WhatsApp numbers to enable greater data sharing with Facebook, particularly for targeted ads. WhatsApp’s privacy policy states that it shares a certain amount of user data with Facebook, and in turn, the linking of the two accounts would be the final piece of the math, that connects two huge data sets. WhatsApp will start displaying ads from the beginning of 2019. This is just a little piece of information and we will get more information about ads on WhatsApp in the forthcoming weeks to come.