The app mentioned will probably be rolling out usernames step by step, in a transfer meant to enhance privateness.
Printed On 30 Jun 2026
Change is coming for some three billion customers of the world’s favorite messaging platform, WhatsApp.
The social media app owned by Meta will enable customers to be recognized by usernames instead of phone numbers, it mentioned on Monday. WhatsApp is utilized in greater than 180 nations and 60 languages, the platform says.
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Customers will quickly be capable to reserve distinctive handles, with a wider rollout deliberate for later this yr.
The transfer is designed to enhance privateness on the platform amid longstanding scrutiny over its knowledge safety practices.
So what’s altering, and how are you going to seize a deal with nobody else has?
What change has WhatsApp introduced?
Customers will quickly be capable to swap the telephone numbers displayed on WhatsApp with usernames, the corporate mentioned. Underneath the brand new system, which can start later this yr, customers will be capable to select to be “findable” and contacted by their handles solely.
The app mentioned it has already begun permitting some customers to order distinctive usernames earlier than an even bigger rollout later this yr.
Why is WhatsApp making this alteration?
The messaging platform mentioned the change is designed to enhance privateness options, for which it and its guardian firm Meta have come underneath scrutiny up to now.
“We have now designed this as a core privateness function,” Alice Newton-Rex, WhatsApp’s vice chairman of product, advised reporters.
In response to the corporate, there will probably be no public listing of usernames and no autocomplete solutions, that means customers might want to know somebody’s actual username to succeed in them for the primary time.
“When somebody new walks into your life – a classmate, a neighbour, somebody you meet at an occasion – sharing a telephone quantity can really feel like an enormous step,” a WhatsApp firm weblog put up acknowledged.
“That’s as a result of a telephone quantity is private and it’s tied to so many components of your life. Generally you simply wish to chat with out handing over your digits.”
The corporate advised one consumer on X that it has added a number of new options to assist customers defend themselves from scammers.
Elective username keys – or quick numbered codes – might be added, which might imply folks can solely contact a consumer if they’ve each their username and its key, for instance.
WhatsApp additionally mentioned it would restrict the variety of new folks anybody account can contact as a guard in opposition to spam accounts, and that its techniques can now detect and block “abuse patterns”.
How will the brand new usernames work?
Corporations, organisations and creators with present accounts on Meta’s different social media platforms – Instagram and Fb – may have the chance to assert their usernames as handles on WhatsApp as effectively.
Usernames should be three to 35 characters. To forestall impersonation, WhatsApp will maintain again usernames for high-profile folks or teams, resembling celebrities, public figures and authorities entities.
To order a selected username, WhatsApp mentioned a consumer should obtain the newest model of WhatsApp, go to the Settings tab, the Account tab, after which the Username tab.
The reservation should be achieved with a smartphone – it can’t be achieved on WhatsApp Net or Desktop.
When will this alteration come into impact?
WhatsApp mentioned it would roll out usernames step by step over the approaching months and can notify customers on WhatsApp when the brand new function is accessible of their nation. It has not given particular timelines.
To be ready, the corporate advised customers to “ensure you have the newest model of WhatsApp downloaded and keep watch over your app”.
What are WhatsApp’s present privateness options?
WhatsApp’s present privateness settings are restricted to blocking particular person customers and silencing unknown callers.
