I talked with a professor of advertising to make sense of what this means for all of us who use those social media platforms.

The days of “No ads! No games! No gimmicks!” are over. That was the slogan coined by one of the founders of WhatsApp, Brian Acton, which the other founder of the messaging app, Jan Koum, used to keep taped to his desk on a sticky note.

Meta announced that it is adding ads and subscriptions to its WhatsApp messaging app in a June 16 press release. The social media giant, primarily known as the parent company of Facebook, said that the changes will roll out over the next few months and that they are intended to help businesses and organizations grow.