WhatsApp will soon allow users to create and share unique usernames instead of exposing their phone numbers, the messaging platform announced Monday, introducing a long-awaited privacy feature aimed at giving users greater control over their personal information.
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.
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.
The app, owned by Meta Platforms , 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. It wasn't more specific about the timeline.
"We have designed this as a core privacy feature,” Alice Newton-Rex, WhatsApp's vice president of product, told reporters.
