WhatsApp users will no longer have to share phone numbers to exchange messages as part of the latest update to the service.<\/p>\n
Instead, people will be able to pick unique usernames to chat with others.<\/p>\n
Meta – the owner of WhatsApp – said the move is “designed to protect the privacy of your phone number”.<\/p>\n
Restricting access to numbers would mean they are not shared automatically in cases such as being added to a large group chat or messaging a person or a business for the first time, the company added.<\/p>\n
What’s more “there’s no directory to browse and no suggestions, so people need to know your exact username to contact you,” Meta said.<\/p>\n
As with other social media services, the sheer number of people using WhatsApp means that many may not get their first choice of handle.<\/p>\n
The company said it would gradually roll out username reservations worldwide “over the coming months”, notifying users in each country as it does so.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, “creators, small businesses and organizations” will be allowed to claim WhatsApp usernames they already use on Facebook or Instagram – platforms also owned by Meta – it added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WhatsApp users will no longer have to share phone numbers to exchange messages as part of the latest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":524828,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[61,60,80],"class_list":["post-524827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=524827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524827\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/524828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=524827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=524827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=524827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}