WhatsApp Updates For 2019

WhatsApp is one of those few Facebook owned apps which does not offer advertisements. However, at the Facebook Marketing Summit in Rotterdam, Facebook announced it will bring advertisements to WhatsApp stories starting from 2020.

Olivier Ponteville, the head of media at Be Connect Agency who attended the summit, tweeted about the announcement.

The stories feature on WhatsApp is similar to that of Instagram and Snapchat, where one can post photos and videos which will disappear after 24 hours. From 2020, targeted advertisements will be brought into this feature.

This was speculated back in November 2018, when the Vice President of WhatsApp, Chris Daniels stated, the Company would show ads in the status and stories feature and as a result, these ads would become the Company’s primary mode of monetisation.

At the same summit, Facebook announced it is also testing a bunch of other features for WhatsApp. Some of these featured include a shortcut for QR code, richer message formats for Whatsapp Business and it will also let users crosspost stories to Facebook.

According to WABetaInfo, WhatsApp will soon allow its users to share their statuses and stories to Facebook stories. This feature will apparently allow users to share videos, images, text statuses and GIFs on Facebook through WhatsApp.

WhatsApp is also testing a QR code feature for the app which will be added to the profile section. This will make it easier for users to add contacts by scanning their QR code or share their codes with someone else.

For security reasons, users will also be able to replace their QR code with a new one from time to time.

Some improvements to WhatsApp Business will also be made. Its users will witness richer text formats and will also be able to link PDFs and image files to e commerce websites.

Now, it will be interesting to see how all these features will be received by users and how beneficial they can be to the Company, business wise.

All these features are expected to be implemented by 2020.