WhatsApp users will soon be able to go by usernames instead of phone numbers, as the company moves to address what it called a privacy blind spot. The app said Monday that it has started allowing users to reserve unique usernames, which can be used to contact WhatsApp users when the feature is launched later this year. The change comes from WhatsApp, owned by Meta Platforms, not from any public demand routed through democratic channels. It’s a corporate fix to a corporate problem, delivered on the company’s schedule.
Who Gets to Be Found
Until now, anyone who had a user’s phone number could contact that person on WhatsApp. That setup made the app’s social graph simple for the company and exposed users to contact through a number they may not have wanted to share. Alice Newton-Rex, WhatsApp’s vice president of product, said, “We have designed this as a core privacy feature.” She said, “People will need to know your exact username to contact you for the first time.”
The company did not give a more specific timeline. It said in a blog post that over the “coming months” users will get the option to be found and contacted only by their username, and not their number. WhatsApp said it has more than 3 billion users globally. That’s a lot of people waiting on a platform owned and managed from above, with the rules changing when Meta decides they should.
The Platform Sets the Terms
There won’t be a directory of usernames on the app, and the app won’t suggest names as users type. WhatsApp’s current privacy settings are limited to blocking individual users and silencing unknown callers. The app also allows users to add a profile name, but that’s only displayed in chat groups for other people who don’t have the user’s contact info saved. The company is still the gatekeeper. It decides what users can do, what they can’t, and how much control gets handed down in the name of privacy.
While Americans still prefer text messaging to WhatsApp, the app is widely used in Europe, Asia and much of the rest of the world. Catchy online handles are highly coveted, and users will likely scramble to claim a desirable one. Newton-Rex said, “I think a lot of people will go and get usernames and that’s why we decided to open reservations early.” Even the scramble for identity inside the app gets managed as a rollout, with reservations opened early because the company expects demand and wants to control the queue.
Who Gets the Best Names
Companies, organizations and creators with existing accounts on Meta’s social media platforms, Instagram and Facebook, will get the chance to claim their usernames on WhatsApp. Usernames need to be between three and 35 characters. To prevent impersonation, WhatsApp will hold back usernames for high-profile people or groups such as celebrities, public figures and government entities. The platform says that’s about safety. It also means the most visible names stay under the company’s thumb, reserved and rationed by the same system that already decides who gets reach, who gets verified, and who gets heard.
The feature is being framed as privacy, and maybe it is, in the narrow sense that a phone number won’t be the only key to contact someone anymore. But the structure stays the same. Meta owns the app. Meta sets the rules. Meta decides which usernames can be claimed, which ones get held back, and when 3 billion users get access to the next layer of control. The users don’t run the platform. They never did.