WhatsApp has announced a new feature that lets you talk to people using a username — kind of like a nickname — instead of having to share your phone number, the company said on its official blog in October 2024.

Here's how it works: you create a WhatsApp username and share it with people you want to contact. They can message or call you using that username alone. Your actual phone number stays private unless you choose to give it out.

Why this matters for privacy

This is actually important for keeping your information safe. Phone numbers are tricky because they're connected to a lot of personal details — your cell phone carrier has your name on file, phone numbers are often used as backup logins for accounts, and companies buy and sell lists of phone numbers. A username that's just a name you make up doesn't connect to any of that. So fewer people and organizations can track you through your communication.

Another messaging app called Signal added something similar earlier in 2024. Signal went further — you can completely hide your phone number from people you contact. WhatsApp's version is less extreme. Your phone number still runs your account behind the scenes. But in a practical sense, millions more people will have access to this kind of privacy feature, since WhatsApp has roughly two billion users while Signal has far fewer.

What about businesses

If you run a business or build software that uses WhatsApp to contact customers, this change matters. Companies typically use phone numbers to organize and find customer records. When usernames become another way people can be contacted, businesses will need to update how they store and manage those records. WhatsApp hasn't yet explained exactly how this will work with its business tools, and that's something the companies using it will be watching for.

A shift that's been building

Phone numbers on messaging apps were never meant to be there — they got used because it was cheap and easy when smartphones first appeared. But security experts realized that using phone numbers as a login method has real risks. Over time, messaging apps have started letting people sign in and connect in other ways. WhatsApp's new username feature is one more piece of that change. Whether it goes further depends on what users want and what regulators demand.