Conversations with your friends won’t be the only thing that shows up inside your WhatsApp next year. Facebook has confirmed ads will also start appearing in 2020.

You’ll see them in WhatsApp Status, the messaging platform’s answer to Instagram Stories.

WhatsApp is one of the biggest messaging services on the planet, with around 1.2 billion active users. But now that it is entirely free to use, the only revenue comes from business users.

Facebook is hoping to hoping to change that by showing the rest of us ads. We’ve been waiting for them to appear for a while now, and at the annual Facebook Marketing Summit this week, it was confirmed they’ll arrive in 2020.

Ads will invade WhatsApp Status

The ads will appear in WhatsApp Status. These are just like Stories on other platforms; they might be text, images, videos, or GIFs your friends have posted that disappear after 24 hours.

Just like that other content, ads will take up the whole screen when you view them — as you can see in the images below — and you’ll be able to swipe up on them to find out more.

Coming Soon to @WhatsApp…

– WhatsApp Status (Stories) to get Ads in 2020

– WhatsApp for Businesses to get richer messaging format options

– WhatsApp product catalog to be integrated with existing Facebook Business Manager catalog

h/t + @Olivier_Ptv
at #FMS19 pic.twitter.com/Z5LsbADNbP

— Matt Navarra (I quit X. Follow me on Threads) (@MattNavarra) May 21, 2019

That means that if you don’t really use WhatsApp Status, you might never see ads at all.

Other changes coming in 2020

Facebook is also giving advertisers the ability to redirect users from Facebook and Instagram to WhatsApp. When you tap on a promoted post, for instance, you might be sent to a WhatsApp chat with the retailer where you’ll be able to make an inquiry.

Facebook has also promised richer messaging format options for WhatsApp for Business customers, and the integration of the WhatsApp product catalog into the existing Facebook Business Manager catalog.