WhatsApp is adding usernames so you can hide your phone number

WhatsApp is rolling out usernames, letting people be reached by a chosen handle rather than their phone number — a long-requested privacy change that brings the world's biggest messaging app into line with rivals, with reservations opening now ahead of a wider launch later this year.

Aisha Carter June 30, 2026 at 2:08 AM

For most of its life, WhatsApp has had a basic catch: to message someone, or to be messaged, you generally had to share a phone number. That is now changing.

What's new

The Meta-owned app is introducing usernames, and has begun letting people reserve one, 9to5Google reported. Users can claim a handle from the app's settings — under Account, then Username — on both Android and iOS, with the full ability to message via username set to roll out over the coming months. Creators and businesses, the report said, will be able to claim the usernames they already use on Instagram or Facebook, keeping their identity consistent across Meta's apps.

Why it matters

The point is privacy. Once usernames are live, the company says, your phone number need no longer be exposed to every new contact, group or business you interact with — a meaningful shift for a platform with billions of users. It also closes a gap with competitors: Signal, the privacy-focused nonprofit messenger, already offers usernames so people can connect without trading phone numbers, and Telegram and Instagram have long used handles.

The fine print

There are limits, at least at the outset. According to 9to5Google, the system relies on an exact match — there is no public directory or search, so you can only start a conversation with someone if you already know their precise username. That protects against strangers trawling for accounts, but also means a username is not a way to be discovered by the wider world. Other details, including the rules on characters and whether a handle can later be changed or transferred, have not been fully spelled out.

A familiar tension

The feature lands amid the broader scrutiny that follows Meta wherever it goes. Usernames expand user control, and WhatsApp messages remain protected by end-to-end encryption, limiting what even the company can see of their contents. Yet privacy advocates continue to question Meta's wider data practices, and the shift to handles raises its own small risks — impersonation and the squatting of desirable names among them. For users, the immediate takeaway is simpler: if there is a username you want, it is now, increasingly, first come, first served.