Just like SMS and Email before it, WhatsApp has become the latest frontier for brands eager to grab user attention. Wherever attention flows, marketers inevitably follow — and right now, billions of users are active on WhatsApp. It started subtly, with brands offering delivery updates or booking confirmations. But as always, what begins as utility quickly morphs into noise. We've seen this play out before: SMS was once personal, then spammed. Email offered a digital revolution, then got buried under promotional overload. Now, WhatsApp is following the same trajectory — real-time and intimate, but fast becoming a playground for unsolicited marketing messages.
The pattern is familiar. Brands begin with useful notifications, then creep toward full-blown advertisements disguised as alerts. Engagement becomes a science — open rates are tracked, message timings are optimized, and automation rules the game. And while these tactics deliver results for marketers, they often come at the cost of user experience. Many of us have responded by blocking, unsubscribing, or opting out — only to find these messages return through a different number, loophole, or sheer persistence. The tools meant to keep us connected now require us to constantly defend our attention.
This isn’t about being anti-marketing — it’s about demanding smarter, more respectful communication. Platforms like Gmail understood the problem years ago and introduced intelligent categorization with Primary, Promotions, Social, and Updates tabs. Smartphones followed suit with SMS, dividing them into Transactional, Promotional, and Personal. These changes didn’t stop marketing; they simply made it more manageable. They empowered users and restored balance — ensuring that truly important messages didn’t get buried under irrelevant noise.
It’s time for WhatsApp to do the same. A chat app used by billions daily should take a user-first approach to business messaging. Imagine WhatsApp introducing three distinct chat categories: Promotions for offers and ads, Updates for tickets and delivery tracking, and Transactions for order confirmations and OTPs. This simple structure could significantly reduce message fatigue, enhance trust, and improve engagement for the messages that actually matter. Brands would still reach users, but in a way that respects their attention. It’s not just good UX — it’s good business.
