WhatsApp has begun to deploy, gradual way and still very limited, the option to choose a username within the app. The feature—which has been on many users' wish lists for years—was spotted in the latest beta versions for Android and iOS by WABetaInfo. If you want to know if you already have it available, go to Settings > Profile: if the deployment has reached your account, you will see the new field there.
The most immediate impact is on privacy. With an active username, anyone who doesn't have your number saved will see that alias instead of your phone. That said, the number is still necessary to create and maintain the account, at least for now. Regarding the alias rules: between 3 and 35 charactersonly lowercase letters, numbers, periods and underscores, and without imitating web domains (no “.com” or “www”). WhatsApp also includes an optional four-digit password that must be entered to start a conversation with an unknown user, an extra filter to stop unwanted contacts.
Late, but good: WhatsApp catches up with Telegram and Signal
The obvious question is why it has taken so long. Telegram has been doing this for years, Signal has had it for a long time, and even iMessage allows you to use an email as a point of contact. WhatsApp, with more than 3 billion usersmaintained a total dependence on the telephone number that many saw as a serious privacy problemespecially in groups or when talking to strangers. The risk of that number ending up in the wrong hands—spam, fraud, spoofing—was real, and quite frequent.
There is a nuance that should not be overlooked: if the search by username is opened to people outside the contact bookreal privacy will depend a lot on how everything is configured. An easily traceable alias doesn't solve much.
In any case, Meta has been strengthening WhatsApp security for months: at the beginning of the year they arrived stricter account settingsand usernames are another step in that direction. It is a concrete advance, although it comes quite late compared to the competition.
