WhatsApp is developing a feature that will let users hide their phone numbers through a system based on four privacy levels, tecnoandroid.it reported.
This marks a significant change for a service that has tied user identity to that sequence of digits since its origins, sharing it almost automatically upon contact.
The project follows Meta’s initiative from June, when the company began allowing users to reserve a username connected to their account. This alternative identifier serves as the necessary base to allow people to be found and contacted without revealing their telephone numbers, which are delicate data linked to a person and used for other services.
The username functions as a personal label that can be shared with greater ease than a mobile number, which is much more delicate and complicated to take back once spread.
The core of the new feature in testing is the ability to choose how much to expose. Rather than a simple on-or-off switch, the system features a gradual scale of options allowing individuals to establish how visible their phone numbers remain.
This multi-degree approach adapts to different situations, accommodating users who utilize WhatsApp strictly with friends and family alongside those who use it for work, in large groups, or with newly met contacts. The mechanism is intuitive even for those who do not understand technology.
Detailed information on how the individual protection degrees will be concretely structured remains limited. The combination of the username and the visibility levels represents the connection between Meta’s initiatives to grant users broader control over personal data.
The function is still in the experimental phase and has not been released to everyone, as TecnoAndroid noted. However, the path started with username reservations in June finds its clearest development in this testing phase as WhatsApp works to let users keep numbers hidden.
The company had long been discussed regarding an effort to make the platform more attentive to the privacy of personal data, taking on more defined contours from what previously seemed like just a hypothesis.
