Meta’s on a roll this month… WhatsApp is tackling its spam problem by doing the unthinkable for a messaging app: limiting how many messages you can send.

In the coming weeks, there will be a monthly limit on messages you can send to people who haven’t responded to you. The limit applies to new contacts. Here’s the fun part, though: WhatsApp won’t say what the limit is. They’re testing different thresholds, which means you’re basically playing spam roulette.

Looking at the most anxiety-inducing example WhatsApp gave, “If you meet someone at a conference and send three messages, that counts against the limit,” it looks like networking will require strategic message budgeting. For regular users, this will probably be fine, unless you’re aggressively networking. 

For businesses, the stakes are higher. Outreach will need to be strategic, and response rates suddenly matter a lot more. The days of spray-and-pray messaging are over, which means investing in smarter customer communication strategies that actually get responses. For spammers? Get rekt, as the kids say. Time to find a new platform to ruin. Maybe Telegram?

Here’s where we have to break character and admit this probably needed to happen. If you’ve used WhatsApp in spam-heavy markets, you know the problem is real. Your inbox becomes unusable with important messages getting buried under marketing blasts you never asked for, “business opportunities” from people you met once, group invites to things you don’t care about, and strangers who got your number somehow. An actual messaging limit forces senders to be strategic.

In the end, this is Meta’s version of tough love. They’re forcing everyone to think about their messages. Is it actually valuable? Is cold messaging 200 people really a sustainable strategy?

You can read more here.