For years, WhatsApp resisted the advertising model even as its parent company heavily monetised its other platforms like Facebook and Instagram.

Meta is introducing ads to WhatsApp for the first time since acquiring the app for $19 billion in 2014, according to CNBC. The company announced Monday that businesses can now run status ads in WhatsApp’s Updates tab,

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.

WhatsApp will roll out ads on status in the next few months globally. Businesses will soon have an option to select WhatsApp status for ads as they would for other Meta campaigns on Facebook or Instagram.

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.