WhatsApp’s latest beta lets you create a username so you don’t have to share your phone number

• WhatsApp now lets some users create usernames
• For now, this feature is only available to a limited number of beta users
• With it, you can share your username instead of your phone number

We’ve been hearing that WhatsApp will get usernames for a while now, and they’ve finally arrived — though so far they’re only in the latest beta versions of WhatsApp, and only for a “limited” number of users in a gradual rollout, according to WABetaInfo.

In other words, you need to be running a beta version of WhatsApp to take advantage of the new feature right now, and even then, you might not get access just yet. But the very fact that usernames are in beta suggests that they will hopefully become more widespread soon.

Once you access the new feature, you can go to Settings > Profile in the WhatsApp app and from there you will be able to create a username. The feature is live in both iOS and Android WhatsApp betas, and instead of creating a new username, you can choose to use your Facebook or Instagram username instead if you prefer.

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If you create one, there are various restrictions, including that it must be a username that is not currently used by someone else on any of Meta’s platforms, that it must be at least three characters long, and that it must start with a letter – although it can also contain numbers, periods and underscores.