Your WhatsApp name is your phone number, something you had to provide more than ten years, and this fact pushed you to reveal one of the most personal elements of your personality every time you started a new chat, were added to a group, or a stranger.
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The latter basic need is eventually transforming.
WhatsApp, the biggest messaging app in the world, is gearing up to what analysts term a seismic identity restructuring: public names. It is not a cosmetic one, but an enormous transformation aimed at improving privacy and online security of its two billion users.
However, this is the most crucial thing a user should know: In the nearest future, you will have to race to have a preferred handle. WhatsApp is rolling out a user name reservation system in advance of the complete chat platform and here is why you should be prepared.
What is the Reason behind the Rush in Reservation?
The implementation of the username system has been imminent and both Android and iOS have been seen to have reservation features in their current betas.
Knowing that all people will desire the simple, desirable handles (e.g. their name or popular business terms), WhatsApp is initiating the reservation stage early to ensure global equality. Because features may be released regionally this helps avoid those users who get the update first in the country taking all the best names before any other person can even access the feature.
When you manage to get a special handle, you are assured of the ownership thereof once it is widely adopted, meaning you have the exclusive right to it in case that particular characteristic becomes fully operational.
The Strict Rules to Follow:
- In case you want to have a desirable name, you should adhere to rather rigid formatting rules:
- Only Lowercase: Usernames should have lower cases only (a-z), numbers (0-9), dots (.), and underscores (). Capital letters should not be used.
- Should Contain a Letter: You can not use numbers and symbols as your handle.
- No Web Domains: The domain indicators such as the use of web indicators such as the use of the term www. are specifically prohibited among the username.
The largest Privacy Enhancement Since End-to-End Encryption.
The main advantage of this feature is simple: You will now be able to communicate without exchanging your phone number.
Your number is substituted by your username meaning your public contact point, which provides you with selective sharing control of your most sensitive credential. This is an overwhelming digital protection improvement:
- Hidden Identity: New people, business/organization, and participants of big group chats will only see your username.
- Mitigating Threats: The first step to these problems, which is eliminating the general need to use your phone number, directly removes severe security issues such as specific harassment and rigor mortis account hijacking (SIM-swapping).
The PIN Game-Changing Security Layer: The Username PIN.
The WhatsApp username system is unique with optional though highly recommended Username PIN.This PIN is used as an obligatory secondary authentication, making the public handle a two-factor authentication scheme.
Here is how it works:Although some bad actor can guess or get your public username, without knowing your corresponding PIN, they cannot use it to initiate a chat session with you.
This is an offensive attack that Meta has been making in advance of the spam and unwanted contact that normally surrounds public username systems. WhatsApp will provide unprecedented control by promoting this PIN, which will go a long way to minimize the chances of getting undesirable messages via their new digital identity.
The complete system is yet to be launched on an official date, but reservation feature is evidently the next. To get your ideal digital ID, it is time to make a decision on what name you will claim before the world starts to stampede.