Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
TL;DR
- WhatsApp remains to be actively engaged on implementing help for usernames as a substitute for sharing cellphone numbers.
- The messaging app might let customers optionally set PINs to stop anybody with their usernames from contacting them.
- Customers will possible get to decide on whether or not newly initiated chats show their cellphone numbers or usernames to the opposite events.
WhatsApp has been engaged on supporting usernames for months. The messaging app might quickly permit customers to go for distinctive handles to achieve others with out sharing their cellphone numbers. A brand new WhatsApp beta construct has now revealed that the corporate can also let customers set PINs to restrict spam and undesirable interactions.
In line with WABetaInfo, WhatsApp beta for Android model 2.24.18.2 references PIN help when organising a username. If the characteristic involves fruition, it is possible for you to to pick a PIN as an elective security measure. This fashion, these together with your WhatsApp username will nonetheless want the chosen digits to provoke a chat with you.
This characteristic might make it difficult for spammers and different dangerous actors to contact you, as you’ll at all times have the ability to change your PIN if somebody posts it publicly. WhatsApp can also allow you to flip off the PIN altogether if you wish to make your profile extra simply accessible.
Past PINs, WhatsApp will possible let customers select whether or not new chats reveal their usernames or cellphone numbers. By choosing the previous identification technique, customers can conceal their cellphone numbers utterly, making WhatsApp a extra personal messenger.
Understand that WhatsApp usernames and PINs are nonetheless underneath improvement, and these options are unavailable to beta testers but. Because of this, there’s no telling when and if the corporate will roll them out to its customers.
