Shares of Meta Platforms, the top performing stock in the Magnificent 7 this year, got a boost Monday as the tech giant announced plans to introduce paid advertising to WhatsApp, opening up a new revenue stream.

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.

WhatsApp is testing ads in Status and paid channel subscriptions, all inside the Updates tab. Private messages remain encrypted and ad-free.

Meta-owned WhatsApp is reportedly working on a new feature that will let users scan documents directly from the app using their phone's