Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
TL;DR
- WhatsApp started testing ads in Status and Channels last year.
- New strings in the app hint that Meta could introduce an ad-free subscription.
- Ad-free subscriptions are already available for Facebook and Instagram to some users.
With as much division there is in the world right now, at least we can all agree on one thing: Ads suck. At best, we tolerate them, but the incessant push to introduce them to every last corner of our lives can be incredibly frustrating to endure — who ever thought they’d be getting ads on their kitchen fridge? Sometimes, at least, we get the option to avoid ads (for a price), and now we may have spotted one of the next apps planning to introduce just such a program.
Last year, WhatsApp started testing ads for its Status and Channels views. And as you’d only expect, there was immediate pushback. But, so far, Meta seems committed to this course, and only plans to introduce ads to more and more users. But as we dig around the code of WhatsApp’s new version 2.26.3.9 release, we’re seeing evidence that suggests Meta may eventually offer a paid ad-free subscription model.
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We’ve got a few different elements within the app here that make reference to subscriptions which remove Status and Channels ads. First up, a couple text strings:
Code
Since you recently removed your WhatsApp account from your Accounts Center, the price of your subscription for no ads in Status & Channels has decreased.
Review your subscription to accept the new price of %1$s/month; or choose to use Status & Channels free of charge with ads.In addition to those, we’ve been able to get the app to actually display one of its messages about no-ad subscriptions:
AssembleDebug / Android Authority
Admittedly, we still don’t have a great sense of how this program may operate, nor what you’ll need to pay for access, but from these it does appear that Meta plans to offer some level of ad-free subscription.
One of our biggest outstanding questions involves who may be able to actually take advantage to this subscription. Already, we’ve seen Meta restrict ad-free Facebook and Instagram to certain countries. And while we don’t see anything here that mentions a similar limitation, we also wouldn’t count it out, not yet knowing the full picture.
Hopefully we’re able to start filling in some of those blanks as we look through future WhatsApp updates. Check back with Android Authority for our ongoing teardown coverage.
⚠️ An APK teardown helps predict features that may arrive on a service in the future based on work-in-progress code. However, it is possible that such predicted features may not make it to a public release.
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