In summary
- Latest WhatsApp beta reveals username reservation system
- Register a username ahead of new identification system rollout
- Phone number will no longer be exposed
WhatsApp is working on a new feature that will allow you to reserve a username to serve as your handle in the popular smartphone messaging service.
Ever since launch, WhatsApp has used your phone number as the primary personal identifier, but that could be all set to change.
Wabetainfo is a website that specialises in diving into the code of Meta’s ubiquitous cross-platform messaging service. It has just uncovered evidence of a new feature under development in the WhatsApp beta for Android 2.25.28.12.
This new feature will let you reserve a user name before such an identifying system rolls out. The idea seems to be to prevent (or at least mitigate) the effect of a certain kind of user hoovering up all the popular usernames, as tends to happen with every popular messaging system since the year dot.
Wabetainfo
Why use a username?
The logic of using a username over a phone number seems obvious, as it prevents your username from being exposed to relative strangers. It would also serve as an extra layer of security, with the other party requiring both your username and your key (assuming you’ve set one up) before they can contact you.
That’s it for specific information, other than a screenshot showing the ‘Reserve username’ option in its place on the WhatsApp Profile page.
Given that the feature is showing up in the beta build, we can probably expect it to roll out to regular users before long, barring any huge technical snags. It shouldn’t be a huge challenge to get the system up and running.
Indeed, if and when WhatsApp adds this username metric to its profiles, it will one of the last to do so. The likes of Signal and Telegram have offered such a feature for some time.
It’s a welcome spot of positive development news after a couple of, shall we say, less than glowing news items. First we had the news of impending ad encroachment, then the disquieting reveal of AI message summaries. Meta recently revealed that it would begin monitoring AI interactions for personalised ads across its platforms, which of course include WhatsApp.
