End-to-end encryption is still guaranteed, and Meta also said that if users only use the app to call or message their contacts, there will be “no change to [the] experience at all,” though for many, this promise simply isn’t enough.

Iranian state television on Tuesday afternoon urged the country's public to remove the messaging app WhatsApp from their smart phones, alleging without offering any evidence the app gathered user information to send to Israel.

Related: Surprising earnings send Meta Platforms stock soaring By August 2014, WhatsApp had ballooned to 600 million users and become the popular messaging app in the world. Experts predicted the app could force the telecommunications industry to lose billions.

WhatsApp has confirmed it's making a major change to its chat app, which will mean users across the globe will suddenly face seeing adverts on the screen. These are destined for a section called Updates, which sit in a tab at the bottom of the screen.

After the tech giant announced it would begin to include ads in WhatsApp’s Updates tab, which is used by roughly 1.5 million people per day, Signal president Meredith Whittaker took to X to lure users to her messaging tool: “Use Signal,” she wrote. “We promise, no AI clutter, no surveillance ads—whatever the rest of the industry does.”

The cofounders of WhatsApp resisted ads in the app for years, including after the company was acquired by Meta for $22 billion in 2014. Brian Acton and Jan Koum left the company in 2017 and 2018, respectively, and on Monday Meta introduced ads in the “Status” feature as well as sponsored Channels in the the “Updates” tab of WhatsApp.