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WhatsApp Usernames: What You Need to Know

This WhatsApp feature allows users to use a username instead of sharing their phone number when starting conversations.

This change has a direct impact on the way companies identify and communicate with their customers.

✅ What are WhatsApp usernames?

● Usernames are unique identifiers in the format @Username that people can optionally use.
● When they do so, their phone number is no longer automatically shared with businesses, giving them greater control over their personal information.
● For businesses, this represents both an opportunity and a significant operational change for which they must prepare.

↗️ What’s changing?

  1. New customer identifier: 
    1. When a user adopts a username, businesses using the WhatsApp API will receive a new backend identifier called a BSUID (Business-Scoped User ID) instead of the phone number. 
    2. The BSUID is a unique, anonymous identifier generated by Meta for each specific combination of user and company. It is an alphanumeric string of up to 128 characters. It has the following format: US.13491208655302741918 (ISO country code + unique alphanumeric identifier).
    3. Key Features of the BSUID:
      1. Unique per business: They are unique for each pair of business portfolio and user (business portfolios were previously referred to as “business administrators”). Two different companies will see different identifiers for the same user. In other words, the same user will have a different BSUID for each company with which they interact.
      2. Automatically generated: It requires no action from the user or the company.
      3. Always present: It is included in all webhooks, regardless of whether the user has an active username.
      4. Regenerated if the phone number changes: If the user changes their phone number, a new BSUID is generated.
  2. Phone number hidden by default: If a customer adopts a username, their phone number will not be visible, except in the scenarios listed under ➡ Cases where the phone number remains accessible.

↗️ Cases in which the phone number remains accessible: Even if a user activates a username, their phone number will still be included in webhooks if any of the following conditions are met:

  1. Recent interaction (30 days): If there has already been a previous conversation with that phone number, it will continue to be shared for a period of 30 consecutive days from the last interaction. This is evaluated for each business number.
  2. Contact Book. The user is in the business portfolio’s contact book. Meta is launching this feature in April 2026 and automatically stores the phone number-BSUID pairing after each interaction.
  3. Proactive messaging via Engage. If a template is sent using the user’s phone number in the “To” field, the reply will always include the phone number. Authentication messages will continue to be sent only to phone numbers. 
  4. If the user has not adopted a username: No changes, the phone number remains visible as usual.

↗️ What steps should your company take?

  1. Prepare for BSUID adoption in your company’s systems. Integrate the BSUID into your systems so you can continue to receive and manage messages from users who adopt usernames. 
  2. Audit your CRM and workflows to identify where the phone number is used as a unique identifier on WhatsApp and add support for the BSUID.
    1. Add a field to the customer profile for the BSUID, alongside existing fields (phone number, email, etc.). 
    2. Review and update your analytics systems, virtual assistant, and active messaging campaigns that rely on phone numbers.
  3. Update the virtual assistant experience and message flows. If a phone number is required for your operations, update your flows to proactively request it from users who set up a username. WhatsApp offers a native flow to streamline this process and minimize errors. 
  4. Claim your business’s username. Businesses can also adopt their own WhatsApp Business username. While optional, this makes it easier for customers to find and recognize them. WhatsApp is reserving usernames based on:
    1. Visible WhatsApp names or Official Business Accounts (OBAs). 
    2. Names verified by Meta. 
    3. Business usernames on Facebook or Instagram (where applicable).
  5. Test the BSUID with support from our Professional Services team to ensure proper functionality before rolling out this change.

✏️ Starting June 29, 2026, businesses that use the API can claim their username in advance via WhatsApp Manager, Meta Business Suite, the Cloud API, or the WhatsApp Business app. The claimed username will be activated when the feature becomes available in the respective country.

↗️ Considerations for business usernames:

  • Minimum 3 characters, maximum 35.
  • Only letters [a-z], numbers [0-9], periods, and underscores. Spaces are not allowed.
  • It cannot begin or end with a period, nor contain consecutive periods.
  • It cannot begin with www. or end with extensions such as .com, .org, .net, among others.
  • You can have one username per phone number.

⚠️ What processes will be disrupted if you don’t prepare? If the company does not adopt the new BSUID and a customer with a username attempts to contact it, the following will be disrupted:

  1. Receiving messages originating from click-to-WhatsApp ads. 
  2. Receiving service messages.
  3. Studio Flows: See section >  Product Impact and Solutions > Impact Scenarios for Integrations.
ℹ️ Messages initiated by the business to known phone numbers and authentication messages will not be affected.

↗️ Product Impact and Solutions

Impact Solution
Virtual Assistant: The WhatsApp webhook no longer guarantees the phone number for users with an active username.
User ID: The webhook no longer guarantees the phone number. The BSUID is provided as the primary identifier.  
 BSUID as native user ID. The VA platform will process the BSUID as a session identifier, without the need for transformation.
Phone number extraction in Studio flows. Flows that extract the phone number from the current user ID will no longer work.
 Phone number compatibility: If the webhook includes the phone number, the user’s number and country will be stored in user-data.
Identity logic in the engine. The engine manages the correlation between sessions using the received identifier. With BSUID, this correlation changes.
 No impact on most workflows. Workflows that do not rely on the phone continue to function as usual.

Live (contact centers): The WhatsApp webhook no longer guarantees the phone number. The BSUID is provided as the primary identifier when the user has an active username.
User identifier: The webhook no longer guarantees the phone number. The BSUID is provided as the primary identifier.
 BSUID as native user ID. The Live platform will process the BSUID as a session identifier, without the need for transformation.
Empty ‘phone’ user field. For users who have adopted a username, the ‘phone’ field available to agents will be empty.
 Request the user’s phone number. If you need to use or have access to this information, we recommend adding an option for agents to ask the user to share their phone number by sending a template with a “Share Contact” button.

Engage (proactive messages): Proactive template messages require a recipient identifier. Until now, the phone number has always been used in that field.
“To” field in proactive messages. Proactive template messages require a recipient identifier. Until now, the phone number has been used.
 BSUID support in the “to” field in Engage accepts either the BSUID or the phone number as a valid value for the “to” field when sending templates.
Users without phone numbers in the database. If the client has users who only interacted using an active username, they may never have logged in with a phone number.

Mixed audiences: Engage supports uploading mixed audiences—phone numbers mixed with user IDs for One-time campaigns.

Proactive response: guarantees a phone number. When Engage sends a template with a phone number in the “to” field, the user’s response will always include the phone number.
New feature: REQUEST_CONTACT_INFO button
 Meta is introducing a new button type for utility and marketing templates that allows you to request the user’s phone number in a secure and verified manner.
  1. The business sends a template message with the REQUEST_CONTACT_INFO button.
  2. The user taps the button, and WhatsApp automatically shares their real, verified phone number.
  3. A “contacts” webhook arrives with the user’s phone number, ready to use. The phone number is automatically added to the Contact Book.
IVR to WhatsApp.
 The IVR has the user’s phone number, so it can continue sending the template to that phone number, and in subsequent interactions, we will continue to receive the phone number automatically.

Impact Scenarios for Integrations
Self-Service and Pre-Escalation Forms:
 These are forms configured from the virtual assistant platform or with the Support team, without any logic in Studio.
The user’s phone number was automatically included when the forms were submitted.

There is no intermediate logic where a fallback can be handled.

Manually add a “phone” field to the form for the user to enter.

Note: The entered data is not automatically validated. If verification is required, you must create a custom integration in Studio.
Studio Flows with Engageware Endpoints
 Some flows in Studio extract the phone number from the user ID to call internal Engageware services.
The user ID will no longer contain the phone number. Current extraction techniques will stop working because the BSUID format is completely different.
 Use the BSUID directly as the user ID instead of the phone number. Engageware APIs will accept this new identifier. 
Studio Flows with External Services
 Some flows extract the phone number and send it to client APIs or third-party services that require the actual phone number. The BSUID is not valid for these services.

Option A (recommended): Send a template with Meta’s REQUEST_CONTACT_INFO button. When tapped, WhatsApp automatically shares the user’s verified phone number. This may incur an additional cost per template.

Option B: Ask the user to enter their phone number manually via a form in the bot flow. This is not secure for authentication; if the phone number is used to verify identity, a second factor (OTP, username+password, biometrics, etc.) must be added.

↗️ What doesn’t change?

  1. Phone numbers remain an integral part of WhatsApp’s operation. 
  2. Businesses that already have customer phone numbers will not lose them and can continue to use them. 
  3. Messages sent by businesses to known phone numbers continue to function normally. 
  4. Authentication messages are not affected.

↗️ More information: To view the official technical documentation, visit the Meta website directly.

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