Nigerians running the latest version of WhatsApp can now reserve a username, the first step in a rollout that will let people message each other without seeing a phone number.
WhatsApp has opened username reservations to users in Nigeria, part of a rollout that began globally on June 29, 2026, and that will eventually let people on the app message each other without sharing a phone number. The change comes ahead of a fuller launch WhatsApp says will happen “over the coming months.”
To reserve a username, a user updates to the latest version of the app, then goes to Settings, then Account, then Username. WhatsApp says the step takes a few seconds. A username has to be between three and 35 characters. Nigerian users have confirmed the reservation prompt is already showing up on updated apps, and it comes with an in-app message: “Usernames are coming soon. Reserve yours today.”
Once the feature is fully live, anyone messaging a user for the first time will see that user’s username instead of their number, if the user has turned the feature on. There’s no public directory to search and no autocomplete, so a person has to already know the exact username to reach someone they haven’t messaged before. WhatsApp is also adding an optional “Username Key,” an extra code a first-time contact must enter before their message goes through.
Businesses and creators can pull their username straight from an existing Instagram or Facebook handle. WhatsApp says it will hold back usernames tied to celebrities, public figures, and government entities, to stop people impersonating them.
“We have designed this as a core privacy feature,” Alice Newton-Rex, WhatsApp’s vice president of product, told reporters. The company says a phone number is tied to too many parts of a person’s life for people to want to hand it over on first contact.
Kunal Shah, who took over as WhatsApp’s CEO in June after Meta invested $900 million in his fintech company CRED, posted on X urging users to lock in a username early: “Timing is everything. Joined WhatsApp early enough to claim my username before we release this to the world. Time to get yours.”
Reaction among Nigerian users has been mixed, according to interviews the News Agency of Nigeria carried out in Lagos. Journalist Linda Agbu welcomed the change, saying a personal username would be harder to guess or hack into than a phone number. Kudirat Habeeb disagreed, arguing the phone number system was what set WhatsApp apart from other apps and that Meta should improve other parts of the service instead. Abuja-based entrepreneur Blessing Okudaye called it a good move for business conversations with new clients. A baker in Port Harcourt, Ogochukwu Obiagwuncha, said she worried usernames would make it easier for strangers to guess who someone is and try to message them without being asked first.
Existing chats and saved contacts will keep working exactly as they do now. Phone numbers aren’t going away, they’ll just stop being the only way a stranger can reach a WhatsApp user for the first time.