WhatsApp will instead use the country, city and language of the user, as well as how they interact with other ads and which channels they follow, to drive suggested content. But people who have chosen to link their WhatsApp account to Facebook or Instagram will see more personalised ads.

It has been a long time coming — seven years since Meta first announced its plan to do so, in fact — but ads are starting to appear in WhatsApp as of Monday. They'll only be visible on the Updates tab and the company says those who use the app only to chat with family and friends really won't see any change to their WhatsApp experience.

"The ads will appear in the Status section of the messaging service, visible through the Updates tab on the left of the app screen, so keeping them separate from the main chat conversation area," the FT reports.