WhatsApp Lets 3 Billion Users Claim Handles — and Hide Their Numbers
WhatsApp started rolling out username reservations on June 30, letting its three billion customers declare handles earlier than the complete characteristic launches later in 2026.
The change lets folks join with out sharing a private telephone quantity, addressing demand for a pseudonymous identification in messaging apps. The rollout comes as father or mother firm Meta positions privateness as a platform differentiator, with reservations opening step by step by way of the week.
How WhatsApp Usernames Work
Users can reserve a deal with by way of Settings > Account > Username within the newest app model. Each username belongs to 1 individual solely, and the app confirms availability throughout setup. Because handles are first-come, first-served, widespread names might disappear quick as soon as the characteristic totally rolls out.
Importantly, usernames don’t change telephone numbers on WhatsApp. Users nonetheless want a quantity to register and log in. However, the characteristic provides a secondary identification layer for individuals who favor to not share contact particulars with new connections.
Usernames take the type of a novel deal with, corresponding to @Name123, and differ from a person’s show identify. The show identify seems in a profile and doesn’t must be distinctive, whereas every username have to be one in all a sort. When customers ship a message or place a name, their telephone quantity stays hidden from contacts who haven’t already saved it.
Privacy Controls That Limit Exposure
WhatsApp constructed a number of protections into the characteristic. An non-obligatory PIN key requires outsiders to enter a code earlier than beginning a chat. The platform additionally limits what number of new contacts any single account can attain per interval. Automated methods detect and block uncommon contact patterns within the background.
That mixture makes mass-contact abuse more durable to execute at scale.
Notably, WhatsApp gives no public username listing to browse. Strangers can not discover accounts by looking out names, which removes a key entry level for fraud. That design differs from Telegram, the place Chinese-language scam networks have exploited open search to recruit victims at scale.
Meta’s Privacy Push Meets a Growing Fraud Landscape
Messaging-app fraud has grown extra subtle in 2026. Pig-butchering schemes ceaselessly start with a chilly message and escalate to pretend funding platforms that drain victims’ accounts.
US authorities traced a $61 million USDT seizure to those schemes earlier this yr. Prosecutors stated fraudsters contacted victims straight earlier than pulling them into fraudulent platforms. Additionally, hiding telephone numbers at first contact cuts off one customary entry level for these schemes.
The characteristic raises a separate impersonation concern amongst public figures. Indian entrepreneur Ankur Warikoo has taken Meta to court docket over AI deepfake adverts selling fraudulent WhatsApp funding teams. He warned that scammers might register handles mimicking a public determine’s identify to solicit cash from followers.
Warikoo additionally famous that usernames take away one key verification fallback. Today, recipients can name a telephone quantity and use Truecaller to substantiate a sender’s identification. Username-only contact removes that possibility fully.
For Meta, the username characteristic suits a broader push for platform scale. The firm watched Micron surpass its market cap earlier this yr, whilst Zuckerberg’s (*3*) preserve platform bets in focus for buyers. Meanwhile, the broader Web3 privacy debate has been pushing related identification protections into mainstream conversations properly forward of this launch.
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