Earlier this year, WhatsApp announced plans to update its terms of service and privacy policy that would mandate users to share their data with Facebook when a user messages a WhatsApp Business account. However, WhatsApp’s failure to properly communicate new changes caused widespread confusion among users, forcing the company to delay the deadline by which it required everyone to accept the new change. The company then revealed that it had pushed the deadline to May 15 and that users who don't accept the new policy by that date would start seeing their WhatsApp functions being limited slowly over time. However, as the backlash continued, WhatsApp was forced to revise that change, too, with the company later confirming that it had decided not to delete or limit accounts. Now new evidence suggests that the Facebook-owned company could be making the new terms of service optional.

According to WABetainfo, WhatsApp will let users continue to use the service as it is even if they don’t accept the updated terms of service. The company now plans to limit this mandatory change to WhatsApp Business messaging.

In simple terms, if you use WhatsApp to chat with your friends and family, you can choose to ignore the terms and continue to use the service without attracting any limitations. However, if you want to chat with business accounts, WhatsApp will require you to "review and accept the WhatsApp update."

The following message will be shown when the user tries to message a business account:

WhatsApp always maintained that its updated terms of service were only going to apply to users messaging WhatsApp Business accounts.

WABetainfo says WhatsApp plans to announce this new change to Terms of Service "very soon" and that a future version of WhatsApp beta will support this change. WhatsApp has yet to officially confirm this new change.