{"id":283667,"date":"2026-06-29T12:06:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T16:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/29\/whatsapp-will-allow-users-to-go-by-usernames-instead-of-phone-numbers-closing-a-privacy-blind-spot\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T12:25:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T16:25:08","slug":"whatsapp-will-allow-users-to-go-by-usernames-instead-of-phone-numbers-closing-a-privacy-blind-spot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/29\/whatsapp-will-allow-users-to-go-by-usernames-instead-of-phone-numbers-closing-a-privacy-blind-spot\/","title":{"rendered":"WhatsApp will allow users to go by usernames instead of phone numbers, closing a privacy blind spot"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/halifax.citynews.ca\/2026\/06\/29\/whatsapp-will-allow-users-to-go-by-usernames-instead-of-phone-numbers-closing-a-privacy-blind-spot\/\">WhatsApp will allow users to go by usernames instead of phone numbers, closing a privacy blind spot<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/halifax.citynews.ca\/2026\/06\/29\/whatsapp-will-allow-users-to-go-by-usernames-instead-of-phone-numbers-closing-a-privacy-blind-spot\/\">https:\/\/halifax.citynews.ca\/2026\/06\/29\/whatsapp-will-allow-users-to-go-by-usernames-instead-of-phone-numbers-closing-a-privacy-blind-spot\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Publish Date: <a href=\"publish_date]\">2026-06-29 12:06:00<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Source Domain: <a href=\"halifax.citynews.ca\">halifax.citynews.ca<\/a><\/p>\n<p>LONDON (AP) \u2014 WhatsApp users will soon get the option of going by usernames instead of phone numbers, the company said Monday, announcing plans to address a privacy blind spot.<\/p>\n<p>The app said 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. <\/p>\n<p>WhatsApp, which says it has more than 3 billion users globally, has until now allowed users to be contacted by anyone who has their phone number.<\/p>\n<p>The app, owned by Meta Platforms, said in a blog post that over the \u201ccoming months\u201d users will get the option to be found and contacted only by their username, and not their number. It wasn\u2019t more specific about the timeline. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have designed this as a core privacy feature,\u201d Alice Newton-Rex, WhatsApp\u2019s vice president of product, told reporters. <\/p>\n<p>There won\u2019t be a directory of usernames on the app, and the app won\u2019t suggest names as you type. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople will need to know your exact username to contact you for the first time,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n<p>WhatsApp\u2019s 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\u2019s only displayed in chat groups for other people who don\u2019t have the user\u2019s contact info saved. <\/p>\n<p>While Americans still prefer text messaging to WhatsApp, the app is widely used in Europe, Asia and much of the rest of the world.<\/p>\n<p>Catchy online handles are highly coveted and users will likely scramble to claim a desirable one.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think a lot of people will go and get usernames and that\u2019s why we decided to open reservations early,\u201d Newton-Rex said. <\/p>\n<p>Companies, organizations and creators with existing accounts on Meta\u2019s social media platforms, Instagram and Facebook, will get the chance to claim their usernames on WhatsApp.<\/p>\n<p>Usernames need to be between three and 35 characters. To prevent impersonation, WhatsApp will hold back usernames for high-profile&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/halifax.citynews.ca\/2026\/06\/29\/whatsapp-will-allow-users-to-go-by-usernames-instead-of-phone-numbers-closing-a-privacy-blind-spot\/\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WhatsApp will allow users to go by usernames instead of phone numbers, closing a privacy&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":283668,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/halifax.citynews.ca\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/sites\/5\/2026\/06\/4db1d3f46f577be20f0180fb51f3aff8107d1900dd1983dde5b68bf6cde2efff.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-283667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-privacy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283667"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=283667"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283667\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":283669,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283667\/revisions\/283669"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/283668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}