WhatsApp will allow users to use usernames instead of phone numbers, thus enhancing privacy.

WhatsApp has announced that it will introduce the option to use usernames instead of phone numbers, as part of an effort to improve user privacy. This feature will allow users to be contacted only by their username, without revealing their phone number.

Although it has not provided an exact launch date, WhatsApp has already started allowing username reservations. Alice Newton-Rex, vice president of product, emphasized that there will be no username directory and that users must know the exact name to contact someone for the first time.

This change comes in the context where WhatsApp is popular outside the United States, and users will want to claim attractive usernames. Usernames will be between 3 and 35 characters, and WhatsApp will reserve names for high-profile individuals or groups to prevent impersonation.