It’s easy to forget, but WhatsApp was born in its day as a free alternative to texting, back when sending a message over the phone still cost money. As user needs evolved, WhatsApp struggled to adapt, being based on an already outdated concept.
In 2023, Meta finally took the necessary steps to change the internal architecture of WhatsApp, which resulted in the arrival of new functions that, until not so long ago, were impossible to implement implemented. A good example is the new WhatsApp channels, which we can follow as if they were social media accounts.
Along the same lines, the next novelty of WhatsApp is another step to create an independent social network, which is not necessarily associated with our mobile phone or our telephone number. We are talking about usernames discovered in the web version of WhatsApp by WABetaInfo.
In the near future, WhatsApp will allow associate a username with our account; This name will be unique and there cannot be two people with the same name. Do not confuse the username with the real name or nickname that appears when they talk to us and which may be the same for several people; They will be distinguished because the username will have an at sign (@). So it’s very similar to how usernames work on X (Twitter).
New username option in WhatsApp Web
The great advantage of the username being unique for each person is that it will allow other users to be found. without needing to know your phone number. If we want someone to contact us, we will only have to give the username and the other person can search for it in the WhatsApp search engine; At no time will you need to know the telephone number. WhatsApp will not display the phone number of users we have added using name, which adds another layer of privacy that will be much appreciated.
This way it should be much easier to find friends, family, or users on other networks if they use the same name. This can give you more peace of mind when adding other accounts to WhatsApp without fear that they will know our phone number and they can make unwanted calls to us. It can also be a more anonymous option, since we can choose a username that has nothing to do with our real name.
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