In WhatsApp soon you can have a username. It’s just one more step in its ambition to become a surface

Historically WhatsApp has been completely linked to each user’s mobile phone number. This identifier was the basis of its operation, and for example you needed it to create an account, log in and connect with your contact list. The phone number was absolutely essential, but will soon stop being in a network with More than 2,000 million users.

WhatsApp had been in it for some time. It has been talking about how WhatsApp is preparing for user name support. In May 2023, certain details appeared on this option in a beta version of WhatsApp, but these changes never crystallized. Telegram supports this option For yearsFor example.

Soon we will have that option. A preliminary version, WhatsApp Beta 25.17.10.70 for iOS, It has allowed discovering How will the interface be to choose a username to protect the privacy of the phone number. Although that does not necessarily mean that WhatsApp is going to implement the change definitely, it is a clear indication that the option could come. Not only that: it is expected to do it soon, before it ends 2025.

Great advantages. This change raises various clear advantages that will make WhatsApp earn integers in several areas:

1. Flexibility and customization of the service: because that will allow us to associate our name or alias like the ones we use on Twitter.
2. Nothing to remember or point numbers. These user names also facilitate that we share that username with other people and that we better memorize those user accounts. Finding a person – or that she finds us – will be much easier.
3. Account synchronization: to be able to use it on multiple devices will also be easier and more powerful with this system, and although WhatsApp has the traditional link -based bonding system QR codes, this type of characteristic would probably make to use WhatsApp on other devices apart from the mobile could be easier.
4. Goodbye to geographical barriers: another important advantage, since once again when not depending on mobile number, communication with users from other countries, with different telephone numbers by national and local prefixes, is simplified.

But above all, privacy. However, the true advantage of this movement is that of what will contribute to the privacy of users. With user names we can communicate with other people without the need for Share our phone number. This is very striking not to establish conversations with acquaintances, but to do it with people with whom we do it occasionally but that we would prefer that I could not access our phone number. It is also a very interesting way to prevent our number from falling into the wrong hands, such as fraudulent and spam accounts.

This is the preliminary user interface of that user name request

Be careful, user names will have rules. Already The rules have been revealed that we will have to meet users to use this system and ask for a “username”:

• They must have between 3 and 30 characters
• They cannot coincide with a username that already exists
• They can’t start with ‘www’
• It is necessary to include at least one letter when creating them
• They can only include AZ letters, numbers 0 to 9, points and low scripts
• They cannot end with a domain (.com, .net, etc)
• They cannot start or end with a point (.) Nor have two points in a row

Challenges for WhatsApp. Implementing this change after so many years also implies taking into account certain risks.

1. Fragmentation: The current system based on telephone numbers is simple and universal, and user names can fragment the experience and generate confusion.
2. Safety and supplantation: If user name authentication is disconnected from the number, WhatsApp must implement robust verification and recovery systems.
3. Multiple identities: Those user names must be linked to the phone number, but it will be interesting to check how WhatsApp solves the problem of potential multiple identities, in addition to interoperability with other target services.

WhatsApp’s triumph was simplicity. There is another important debate in this regard. For years one of WhatsApp hits has been to be a simple application and that solved a clear problem: that you could chat with your contacts, without more. In recent years we have seen how the application has been adding news such as States (Stories style), Channelsthe paymentsthe communities or integration with Other services of finish. More recently, of course, Goal AI.

Do we need a overrapp? It is as if WhatsApp would like to become that overcomppp with which we do not need much more, but along the way the complexity of the messaging app has been increasing. It is true that the competitive pressure imposed by rivals such as Telegram or Signal causes them to be forced to move card, but in those movements there is a clear argument: that of monetization. The more functions and the more time we spend in the app, the more business opportunities there is a goal.

Image | Rawpixel

In Xataka | After 15 years of waiting, goal has finally done homework: WhatsApp for iPad has just launched