WhatsApp opens the reservation for usernames

WhatsApp allowed from this Monday reserve a usernamea privacy feature that in the coming months will allow you to hide your phone number from other people or businesses when you contact them for the first time.

Registration to reserve a username will open this week globally and for all the more than 3,000 million users of the ‘app’ who want to use it, since it will be optional, although The deployment of the function as such will take place in the coming months.

The company encourages creating a unique usernameand even incorporates a generator into the process in case someone is not clear about how they want to appear on the social network. Approval of the chosen name, however, will depend on it being available.

With usernames, WhatsApp introduces a function requested by the service’s own users and which the company has been working on since 2023. It is also making progress in privacy, something it considers essential to give people control.

In this case, this control materializes in the possibility of users to choose the way in which they make themselves known to other people or businesses, since until now what is seen is the phone number, a sensible factwhich is exposed to strangers.

WHAT ARE USERNAMES

Usernames are a common feature on social media, allowing users to choose whether they want to make themselves known. with your real name or a pseudonym which better reflects your personality.

The idea is now carried over to WhatsApp, albeit as an additional layer of optional privacy, where the company has not established any limitations for users to create their own name, with the only condition that it is unique, that is, that it is not being used by someone else.

The company has restricted those related to high-level profiles, such as public entities, celebrities or companies. If they already have an account on Instagram and Facebook, it allows them claim the same username they use on these other social networks.

HOW USERNAMES WORK

Once a username has been linked to the account, it will appear in the communications with strangers that the user makes, both in chats – with one person or in groups – and by call or video call, instead of the mobile phone number.

In fact, it will be necessary so that other users can contact him, since They must know the full namejust like the phone number is currently needed.

The company has confirmed that there will not be a directory of names or a search engine with suggestions, precisely because it is a privacy feature.

Additionally, and to reinforce the private nature, users with a username will be able to set a key that the person who wants to start a conversation must know, which further restricts communication by strangers.