What WhatsApp Usernames Are and How They Work: Guide for Business

Published: 3 August 2026

Outlining the key aspects of the new feature and how companies can use it.

WhatsApp Usernames for business | Guide by Umnico

On 29 June 2026, WhatsApp opened username reservations to everyone, beginning the end of the era when starting a conversation required a phone number. The handles themselves began appearing in accounts starting in mid-July, with a wider rollout continuing through the rest of the year.

For casual users, the update is mostly a privacy feature — people can stay connected on the messenger while still keeping their phone numbers private. For businesses, however, WhatsApp usernames deliver three things: a new way to be found, effective branding, and a technical change that affects every system that stores customer phone numbers.

In this blog post, we explain what has changed with the username introduction, what has not, and what to keep in mind for brands employing WhatsApp as one of their customer communication channels.

What is a WhatsApp username

A WhatsApp username is a unique handle, such as @MyName, that identifies an account inside the app without showing a phone number. Any WhatsApp user can type your exact handle, find your account, and start a chat. While new to WhatsApp, the feature has been present on Telegram, Instagram, Signal, and other messaging apps and social media for years.

For business and private accounts, WhatsApp usernames do different jobs.

Personal username acts as a privacy layer. When a person who has adopted a username messages someone new, the recipient sees the handle instead of the number.
Business username does not hide a business phone number, which stays visible on a profile. Additionally, it gives a short, memorable identifier that customers can use to reach a company on WhatsApp.

It is also important to understand the difference between a WhatsApp account username and display name. Display names are free text, and two people or brands can easily share one. Usernames are unique across the whole platform, so once yours is approved, nobody else can hold it.

At the moment of writing this article, there is no public directory and no search suggestions. A person has to know someone’s exact handle to contact them for the first time.

Why the messenger introduced usernames

The phone number was both WhatsApp's greatest convenience and its most awkward requirement at once. While it was easy to find anyone using the messaging app from your phone's contact list, it also meant that joining any group chat or replying to a marketplace listing forced you to reveal your private number, which was likely used for banking and login codes as well.

So when introducing the WhatsApp username feature, the platform named privacy, spam control, and easier business discovery as its reasons for the change. It also responded to concerns about potential risks of a rise in cybercrime due to impersonation by saying, “Users still require a phone number to use WhatsApp, and we’ve built multiple layers of defense against scams into usernames,” said the parent company’s spokesperson.

WhatsApp username vs phone number: how they differ

WhatsApp username is an addition to a user’s phone number they use to register on the platform. Rather than replacing it, the username becomes part of the public profile.

	Phone number	Username
Role	Account identifier and login credential	Account's public handle
Is it required	Yes, for onboarding, verification, and account recovery	Adoption is optional
Shown to new contacts	Yes, by default	Appears instead of the number on personal accounts
Easy to remember	Rarely	Yes
Can be changed	Difficult, and it disrupts conversations’ history	Yes, at any time
Uniqueness	Globally unique	Unique across the platform

How WhatsApp usernames work on the WhatsApp Business Platform

Since the usernames rolled out, when a customer who has adopted a username messages a company on WhatsApp for the first time, a webhook may not include their phone number at all. What arrives instead is a business-scoped user ID (BSUID), a unique identifier linked to a particular user and their conversation with the business profile, prefixed with a two-letter country code. It looks like US.13491208655302741918.

The same person has a different BSUID with every company they write to, so the identifier cannot be traded or resold.
It arrives whether or not the customer uses a username. Supporting it is mandatory for everyone on the WhatsApp Business Platform, including advertisers running click-to-chat ads.
It does not change. Returning customers keep the same ID, preserving conversation history and allowing personalization.
Since July 2026, the API accepts a BSUID as a recipient for most message types, so a business can send a message to a customer using this identifier as a recipient.

Two safeguards protect the customers you already talk to. A phone number still appears in webhooks if you've exchanged messages or calls with that number within the last 30 days. On top of that, a contact book hosted by the platform records the number-to-BSUID link from new interactions onward, which keeps threads intact. When you genuinely need a number for delivery or billing, a request-contact-info button can be added to utility and marketing templates so the customer shares it in a single tap.

For brands, it is important to audit every place where a phone number acts as the primary key. Contact records, ticket routing, deduplication logic, analytics, attribution reports. From now on, each of them needs a BSUID field alongside the number.

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How to create a WhatsApp username

Update to the latest version of the app first. The option is rolling out by region, so it may not appear immediately.

On a personal account

Open WhatsApp and tap your profile in the You tab.
Go to “Settings — Account — Username”.
Tap “Create Username” and type the handle you want.
Check availability and tap “Save”. You can also use the username from other social media for streamlined appearance.

Turn on the username key if you want strangers to enter a code before messaging you.

In WhatsApp Business app

Open “Settings — Account — Username”. Some versions show Reserve Username under the business profile instead.
Enter your preferred handle. The app suggests alternatives when one is taken.
Tap “Save”, then “Done”. The reservation activates once the feature reaches your region.

If the handle you want matches a social profile your company already owns, link that profile to your business phone number before claiming it. That keeps your WhatsApp Business username consistent with the rest of your accounts.

WhatsApp username rules

A WhatsApp username must be between 3 and 35 characters, using only lowercase letters (a–z), digits, periods, and underscores, and must contain at least one letter. Periods can't open or close the string, and they can't appear twice in a row. The username also can't start with "www" or end like a domain.

Where to use your username

A handle nobody has seen is a handle nobody can type. For business, distribution of your WhatsApp username is essential.

For example, a furniture retailer can print its WhatsApp username on every delivery note. A customer with a damaged table leg photographs it and messages the handle from the van's tailgate, without looking up a service number or filling in a web form.

Website. Add it next to the chat widget and in the footer: "Message us on WhatsApp: @BrandName".
QR codes. Print the handle beside the code on packaging, receipts, and shelf labels, so one can be scanned and the other read.
Social media. Use consistent username across bios, link-in-bio pages, video captions, pinned posts.
Email signatures. One line under the phone number turns every employee into a support entry point.
Marketing campaigns. Radio, podcast reads, and video all work since a handle that can be easily pronounced and remembered by the audience.
Retail spaces. Add a username as a part of a design of window decals, fitting room signs, staff badges.
Packaging and invoices. Turn deliveries into new conversations by adding a handle to the boxes, parcels and accompanying documents.

Keep the handle typeable from memory. Patterns like yourbrand, yourbrand.support work well. Meanwhile, complex abbreviations might not be the best choice.

WhatsApp usernames benefits

For businesses, the newly introduced feature provides several upsides in terms of support and sales efficiency, as well as branding and privacy.

Customer support. A handle removes the worst step in any support journey, which is hunting for the right contact. @yourbrand.support can be read out on a call, printed on a receipt, or pasted into a chat transcript. Fewer dead ends mean fewer abandoned requests.
Sales. Every digit a prospect has to copy adds friction, and friction costs conversions. A WhatsApp handle is short enough to remember from a shop window or a podcast ad, and short enough to type before the impulse fades.
Privacy for customers. Buyers who hesitated to message a company because it meant handing over their number can now open a conversation without doing so. Expect first-contact volume to rise, particularly in healthcare, finance, legal services, and recruitment.
Brand recognition. A verified name plus a matching handle across channels tells customers they are in the right place. With impersonation scams as common as they are, holding @yourbrand yourself is worth the ten minutes it takes to claim.

Umnico's omnichannel messaging platform supports 25+ popular social media and messaging channels as well as integrations with popular CRM systems. WhatsApp CRM integration allows businesses to interact with consumers through their CRM system's interface, reach out to customers first via WhatsApp, automate inquiry processing using custom chatbots and triggers, and track the performance of each team member.

Limitations and best practices

While usernames offer convenience, they have edges worth knowing. A business username does not hide your number. Each phone line needs its own handle, so multi-number brands need a naming convention. Since the usernames are reserved on a first–come, first–served basis, it is better to claim desired ones as soon as possible.

Claim early, and claim several variants if using multiple numbers.
Mirror the handles you already use elsewhere. Inconsistency leads to suspicion.
Adopt a structure for multiple numbers: @brand.sales, @brand.support, @brand.mx.
Go easy on punctuation. Every extra period is like giving another chance for a customer to mistype.
Update your CRM settings to properly handle usernames when synchronizing new conversations with existing customer profiles.
Watch for look-alike handles and report impersonation promptly.
Never request a customer for a phone number to start a conversation. Ask only when you really need one, and explain why.

Frequently asked questions

Here are answers to some common questions about WhatsApp usernames.

Does a username replace my phone number?

No. The number is still needed for registration, verification, and account recovery. The username is an additional way to be found.

Does a business username hide my company's phone number?

No, it does not. Business numbers stay visible on the profile. The privacy benefit of WhatsApp username applies to personal accounts only.

Can I change my username later?

Yes, at any time, and your chats and history stay intact. Do not count on a released handle staying available for you, though.

Can all my business lines share one handle?

No. It is one username per phone number, with no duplicates anywhere on the platform.

Which name does a customer see in the chat window?

The order of priority is a saved contact name, then a verified or official business name, then the username, then the phone number.

Will I lose access to customer phone numbers?

Not for active relationships. Numbers persist for anyone you have messaged within 30 days and for contacts stored in your contact book. New username-only conversations arrive with a BSUID instead, and you can request the number with the customer's consent.

Summing things up

WhatsApp usernames make it easier for customers to start a conversation, which may lead to an increasing volume of customer chats and higher pressure on your support and sales teams.

Umnico is a customer communication platform built exactly for that. It brings WhatsApp, including the WhatsApp Business Platform, together with Telegram, Instagram, Messenger, Viber, live chat, and 25+ other channels into one unified inbox, so your team works from a single screen instead of switching between tabs and devices.

Staying connected with customers is easier when a reply on a different channel still keeps every person one contact with one conversation history in a business’s database. Set up WhatsApp CRM by Umnico and manage WhatsApp, Telegram, Messenger, and other channels from a single workspace with CRM integration, automation, and a complete conversation history.