In a blog post published Monday, WhatsApp announced an expansion of its "Channels" discovery and business tools, designed to help you find more content and shops directly within the app. Alongside this rollout,

The introduction of ads on WhatsApp breaks a long-standing promise made by the messaging app’s co-founders, Jan Koum and Brian Acton. The pair launched the service in 2009, and in 2014 a handwritten note taped to Koum’s desk was shared by a Sequoia Capital investor, which said: “No ads! No games! No gimmicks!”

WhatsApp says that users will start seeing ads in parts of the app, as owner Meta Platforms moves to cultivate a new revenue stream by tapping the billions of people that use the messaging service.