Back in June, WhatsApp started rolling out the feature that lets users be known by their usernames rather than their phone numbers. Once users have a valid username, the platform will automatically hide their phone numbers from people they message for the first time, with established contacts retaining visibility of the phone numbers. More recently, it looks like the Meta subsidiary is testing giving users more control over who sees their phone numbers.
WABetaInfo reports that this feature is part of a new section within the privacy settings screen of the WhatsApp beta for Android 2.26.45.1 update. This gives users options as to who gets to see their phone numbers once they’ve opted into the username system. The options are “Everyone”, “My contacts”, “My contacts except…”, and “Nobody”. The screenshots included in the report also indicate that changing this setting will reset your existing exceptions list. The pop-up reads “some people you’ve hidden your number from may see it with this change”.
By default, WhatsApp will have this set to Nobody for those with a username. This ensures that, unless someone else contacts you via your phone number, your number remains hidden. The Everyone setting would likely be the choice of businesses that would want both the business name and number visible to every potential customer. The other two options would likely be for more established contacts, like friends and family, to varying degrees.
The report notes that while the feature was discovered within a beta update, it’s not actually available even for beta testers. With that in mind, it will be a while before the feature sees the light of day, if it does make it that far. Though the report does note that, for markets that don’t yet have usernames rolled out, this may be the final step before WhatsApp rolls the feature out globally.
(Source: WABetaInfo)
