What privacy settings has WhatsApp changed?

The app said it will be rolling out usernames gradually, in a move meant to improve privacy.

Change is coming for some three billion users of the world’s favourite messaging platform, WhatsApp.

The social media app owned by Meta will allow users to be identified by usernames instead of phone numbers, it said on Monday. WhatsApp is used in more than 180 countries and 60 languages, the platform says.

Users will soon be able to reserve unique handles, with a wider rollout planned for later this year.

The move is designed to improve privacy on the platform amid longstanding scrutiny over its data protection practices.

So what is changing, and how can you grab a handle no one else has?

Users will soon be able to swap the phone numbers displayed on WhatsApp with usernames, the company said. Under the new system, which will commence later this year, users will be able to choose to be “findable” and contacted by their handles only.

The app said it has already begun allowing some users to reserve unique usernames before a bigger rollout later this year.

The messaging platform said the change is designed to improve privacy features, for which it and its parent company Meta have come under scrutiny in the past.

“We have designed this as a core privacy feature,” Alice Newton-Rex, WhatsApp’s vice president of product, told reporters.

According to the company, there will be no public directory of usernames and no autocomplete suggestions, meaning users will need to know someone’s exact username to reach them for the first time.

“When someone new walks into your life – a classmate, a neighbour, someone you meet at an event – sharing a phone number can feel like a big step,” a WhatsApp company blog post stated.

“That’s because a phone number is personal and it’s tied to so many parts of your life. Sometimes you just want to chat without handing over your digits.”

The company told one user on X that it has added multiple new features to help users defend themselves from scammers.

Optional username keys – or short numbered codes – can be added, which would mean people can only contact a user if they have both their username and its key, for example.

WhatsApp also said it will limit the number of new people any one account can contact as a guard against spam accounts, and that its systems can now detect and block “abuse patterns”.

Companies, organisations and creators with existing accounts on Meta’s other social media platforms – Instagram and Facebook – will have the opportunity to claim their usernames as handles on WhatsApp as well.

Usernames will have