Quick answer: what businesses need to do
Two things. First, reserve your brand handle on the account that owns your business number: open WhatsApp, go to Settings → Account → Username, type your handle, and confirm. Reservations opened on June 29, 2026 and are rolling out gradually.
Second, get your systems ready. When customers message using a username, their phone number may not be in the data, so your CRM, chatbots, and automations must identify them by the new Business-Scoped User ID (BSUID) instead. Whautomate already does this out of the box.
What WhatsApp usernames mean for businesses
For over a decade, a WhatsApp identity has been a phone number. A username changes that. It's an optional, unique handle that lets people message and call without seeing or sharing a phone number, including when they reach out to your business.
For your customers, this is a privacy upgrade. For your business, it has two direct consequences:
- Your brand needs a handle. Usernames are unique and first-come, first-served, so your business should reserve its name before a competitor or impersonator does.
- Your systems lose a familiar anchor. When a customer messages by username, their phone number may not arrive with the message, which breaks tools that identify people by number.
WhatsApp built usernames to be private by design: there is no public directory and no search, so a customer can only start a conversation if they know your exact handle. Right now we're in the reservation phase, you can claim your business handle today, and the full messaging experience rolls out gradually over the coming months.
How to reserve a WhatsApp username (step by step)
The path depends on who is reserving. Individual customers (end users) reserve inside the WhatsApp app on their phone, while businesses reserve through their Meta business tools. Here's both.
For end users (individual customers)
This is how your customers reserve a personal username. It takes a few seconds:
- Update WhatsApp to the latest version from the App Store or Google Play.
- Open WhatsApp and go to Settings.
- Tap Account, then tap Username.
- Type the username you want, WhatsApp's built-in username generator can suggest one.
- Confirm to reserve it.
Path to remember: Settings → Account → Username. If it's not visible yet, the rollout is gradual and an in-app notification will appear when it reaches the account.
For businesses (your brand handle)
Businesses reserve differently, and can base the handle on an existing WhatsApp display name, Official Business Account, Meta Verified name, or a linked Facebook/Instagram handle. There are two routes depending on how you run WhatsApp.
Route A: Meta Business Manager / WhatsApp Manager (Cloud API businesses). If your number is on the WhatsApp Business Platform, as it is when you use Whautomate, reserve from your Meta business tools, not a phone. You can do this in WhatsApp Manager, Meta Business Suite, or via the API:
- Open Meta Business Suite and go to WhatsApp Manager.
- Go to Account tools → Phone numbers.
- Open the Username section for your business number.
- Enter your brand handle and reserve it. If the handle matches your Facebook Page or Instagram account, you'll first need to link your business phone number to that Page or Instagram account to claim it.
- Save, then repeat for close variations of your brand name.
Route B: the WhatsApp Business app (app-based businesses). If you run your number from the WhatsApp Business app, reserve it on the phone via Settings → Account → Username, type your brand handle, and confirm, then repeat for close variations.
WhatsApp username rules and requirements
WhatsApp enforces strict formatting to prevent impersonation and phishing. Your username must follow these rules:
| Rule | Detail |
|---|---|
| Length | Between 3 and 35 characters |
| Must contain a letter | At least one letter, and the first character must be a letter |
| Allowed characters | Lowercase letters, numbers, periods (.) and underscores (_) |
| No consecutive periods | You can't use two periods in a row (..) |
| No web-like handles | Can't start with www. or end in a domain suffix like .com |
| Must be unique | If someone already reserved it, you'll need a different one |
These anti-abuse rules are exactly why claiming early matters, clean, brand-accurate handles are first-come, first-served.
Businesses: claim your brand handle before someone else does
This is the part every business should act on today. Usernames are unique and stay yours until you change them. If a competitor, a squatter, or an unrelated account reserves the handle your customers associate with you, reclaiming it later is difficult.
If you already use a handle on Instagram or Facebook, WhatsApp lets you claim the matching username by verifying ownership through Meta's Accounts Center. One caveat worth knowing: because Instagram and Facebook are separate namespaces, if a different person owns your exact handle on the other platform, they could race you to claim it on WhatsApp.
Consistent handles across channels also make you easier to find and trust. If you engage customers on Instagram, Facebook Messenger, and Telegram as well as WhatsApp, Whautomate brings all of them into one omnichannel inbox so a customer is the same profile everywhere.
A reserved username is one layer of brand protection; a verified business identity is the other. Before you promote your handle, make sure your business name and green tick are in order with our free WhatsApp Display Name Validator, Green/Blue Tick Eligibility checker, and Meta Business Verification checker.
What reserving does and doesn't do yet
To set expectations correctly:
- Reserving locks in your handle so no one else can take it.
- Messaging via username (people contacting you by handle instead of number) launches gradually over the coming months.
- When it's live and you enable it, first-time contacts won't see your phone number.
So reservation is step one. The bigger operational shift, customers reaching your business without a phone number, is what your systems need to be ready for. That's where most businesses will get caught out.
Why usernames matter for your business systems (the part most guides miss)
Here's the technical reality behind the privacy headline: when a customer messages your business using a username, their phone number may not be in the message data at all.
Almost every CRM, chatbot, and marketing tool uses the phone number as the primary key to identify a contact. Remove it, and a returning customer can look like a brand-new, anonymous person every single time, broken automations, duplicate records, and lost conversation history.
Meta's answer is a new identifier called the Business-Scoped User ID (BSUID).
Meet the BSUID: your new customer identifier
The BSUID is a stable identifier that represents each user relative to your business. It keeps messaging working in a username-first world.
| Property | What it means for you |
|---|---|
| Always present | Appears in every message webhook (in the user_id field), whether or not the user has a username. |
| Stable | Even if the user changes their username, their BSUID with you stays the same, continuity is preserved. |
| Privacy-isolated | Your BSUID for a user can't be used to identify or track them at any other business. Each relationship is a sealed silo. |
| Format | A 2-letter country code, a dot, then up to 128 characters, e.g. US.13491208655302741918. Use it exactly as-is; any truncation fails the request. |
Phone numbers aren't disappearing overnight. If you already collected a customer's number from a prior interaction, you can keep messaging it. WhatsApp also automatically returns a user's phone number for a rolling 30 days after any interaction between your business and that number.
Key dates: BSUIDs began appearing in webhooks around March–April 2026, sending to a BSUID entered testing in May 2026, and usernames began rolling out to users from mid-2026.
How Whautomate is already ready for the username era
You don't need to re-architect anything. Whautomate was built to handle this transition natively:
- BSUID as the primary identifier. Whautomate anchors each contact to their stable BSUID, so conversations stay attached to the right profile even when no phone number is present, and even after a username change.
- Dual-identity contact model. Every record can hold both the BSUID and the phone number (when available), so a username-only customer is still a fully tracked, deduplicated contact from their very first message.
- Built-in "Request Phone Number" action. When your process genuinely needs a number, OTP verification, delivery updates, KYC, or matching to an existing CRM record, Whautomate lets you ask for it inside the chat with the user's consent, then automatically links it back to the existing BSUID profile. No duplicates, no lost history.
- Automations that don't break. Your tags, segments, journeys, and triggers keep running against a stable identifier, so the switch to usernames is a non-event for your team.
The businesses that prepare now will keep working exactly as they do today. With Whautomate, that preparation is already done for you.
Whautomate in action: use cases by business type
Usernames touch every industry that talks to customers on WhatsApp. Here's how Whautomate keeps each one running smoothly when phone numbers stop showing up automatically.
| Business type | The username challenge | How Whautomate handles it |
|---|---|---|
| E-commerce & retail | A repeat buyer messages by username, order history and address are tied to their old phone-number record. | The BSUID reconnects them to their existing profile automatically, so abandoned-cart recovery, order updates, and loyalty flows keep firing. The Request Phone Number action collects a number for delivery only when checkout needs it. |
| Clinics & healthcare | Patients book and reschedule over WhatsApp; you still need a verified number for OTP and reminders. | Whautomate identifies the patient by BSUID for continuity, then requests the phone number with consent for appointment reminders and verification, linked back to the same patient record. |
| Salons, spas & fitness | Walk-in enquiries arrive username-only; you want to add them to campaigns and reminders. | Every enquiry becomes a tracked, deduplicated contact from message one, ready for drip campaigns, class reminders, and re-engagement, no duplicate profiles. |
| Education & coaching | Prospective students reach out without revealing a number, then go quiet. | Chatbot intake captures interest against the BSUID; nurture journeys run automatically, and the number is requested only at enrolment. |
| Financial services | KYC and authentication demand a verified phone number, but first contact is now username-only. | Whautomate holds the conversation on the BSUID and triggers the consent-based Request Phone Number action exactly when verification requires it. |
| NGOs & agencies | Managing many WhatsApp numbers and a shared inbox across a team. | A multi-agent inbox keyed on stable BSUIDs means routing, tags, and assignments never break when a customer switches to a username. |
Your username-era readiness checklist
Whether or not you use Whautomate yet, work through this before usernames go mainstream in your market:
- Reserve your brand handle now, plus obvious variations, via Settings → Account → Username, and verify your Instagram/Facebook handle through Meta Accounts Center to secure the match.
- Audit your data model. Confirm your CRM and inbox can store a customer identity that has no phone number. If phone number is a required primary key, that's your biggest risk.
- Adopt the BSUID as your primary key. Read
user_idfrom every webhook and make it the anchor for each contact, Whautomate does this out of the box. - Plan your phone-number capture. Decide the moments you genuinely need a number (OTP, delivery, KYC) and use a consent-based Request Phone Number action there, not as a gate at "hello".
- Deduplicate on identity, not phone. Ensure a returning username-only customer links back to their existing history instead of creating a new record.
- Test before the rollout reaches you. BSUIDs already appear in webhooks, validate your automations, tags, and routing against BSUID-only contacts today.
Why businesses choose Whautomate for WhatsApp
Whautomate is an official Meta Tech Partner and an all-in-one WhatsApp engagement platform, built so the shift to usernames is one less thing your team has to worry about.
- Future-proof identity. Native BSUID support, dual-identity contacts, and a consent-based Request Phone Number action, ready today, no migration project.
- Shared team inbox. Omnichannel team inbox across WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, Telegram, and live chat, with multi-agent routing, assignments, and tags, all keyed on stable identifiers so context is never lost.
- Broadcasts & campaigns. Send segmented WhatsApp broadcasts, drip journeys, and re-engagement campaigns to thousands, with quality-safe sending.
- AI chatbots & automations. No-code workflow automation and AI chatbots that qualify leads, answer FAQs, and book appointments 24/7.
- Built-in bookings, classes & orders. A native calendar, appointment scheduling, class, group & event bookings, and order management, all inside Whautomate, with reminders and payment collection right in the conversation.
- Lead capture & data. Build forms and landing pages that write straight to the right BSUID contact, and track performance with built-in reports & analytics.
- Built-in CRM & payments. A CRM for SMBs with subscriptions & recurring payments and inventory management, so identity, billing, and stock live in one place.
- Deep integrations. Connect Shopify, WooCommerce, Stripe, Razorpay, and Zapier. See the full integrations directory.
- Enterprise-grade security. End-to-end security that keeps customer identities and conversations protected as usernames and BSUIDs become the norm.
- Fast, guided onboarding. Go live on the WhatsApp Cloud API, including Coexistence on your existing number, in under a day.
The businesses that treat the username change as a non-event will be the ones whose tools already speak BSUID. Whautomate is one of them.
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