LONDON (AP) — WhatsApp users will soon get the option of going by usernames instead of phone numbers, the company said Monday, announcing plans to address a privacy blind spot.
The app said it has started allowing users to reserve unique usernames, which can be used to contact WhatsApp users when the feature is launched later this year.
WhatsApp, which says it has more than 3 billion users globally, has until now allowed users to be contacted by anyone who has their phone number.
The app, owned by Meta Platforms, said in a blog post that over the “coming months” users will get the option to be found and contacted only by their username, and not their number. It wasn't more specific about the timeline.
“We have designed this as a core privacy feature,” Alice Newton-Rex, WhatsApp's vice president of product, told reporters.
There won't be a directory of usernames on the app, and the app won't suggest names as you type.
“People will need to know your exact username to contact you for the first time,” she said.
WhatsApp's current privacy settings are limited to blocking individual users and silencing unknown callers. The app also allows users to add a profile name, but that's only displayed in chat groups for other people who don't have the user's contact info saved.
While Americans still prefer text messaging to WhatsApp, the app is widely used in Europe, Asia and much of the rest of the world.
Catchy online handles are highly coveted and users will likely scramble to claim a desirable one.
“I think a lot of people will go and get usernames and that’s why we decided to open reservations early,” Newton-Rex said.
Companies, organizations and creators with existing accounts on Meta's social media platforms, Instagram and Facebook, will get the chance to claim their usernames on WhatsApp.
Usernames need to be between three and 35 characters. To prevent impersonation, WhatsApp will hold back usernames for high-profile people or groups such as celebrities, public figures and government entities.
FILE - A WhatsApp icon is displayed on an iPhone, Nov. 15, 2018, in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner, File)
BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — A passenger bus traveling on a highway in Hungary early Sunday went off the road and into a ditch where it overturned, killing 12 and injuring others, police said.
The bus, which was carrying a group of Polish tourists, was traveling on eastbound lanes near the town of Mezokeresztes when it overturned on the M3 motorway around 140 kilometers (87 miles) east of Hungary’s capital, Budapest, at around 1 a.m. on Sunday.
In a statement, police said it was likely that the driver fell asleep, causing the accident, and that the driver had been taken into custody.
Hungary's National Directorate for Disaster Management said in a statement that 57 passengers and two drivers were traveling on the bus at the time of the accident, and that several of the passengers had been trapped under the vehicle when it overturned.
Polish Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maciej Wewiór told Polish news agency PAP on Sunday that all of the people on the bus were Polish citizens.
The bus was carrying people from Poland’s southeastern Podkarpackie region who were returning from a pilgrimage in Bosnia-Herzegovina, the regional government in Rzeszow, Poland, said in a Facebook post.
Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar wrote in a statement on Facebook that at least 10 people were seriously injured in the crash. He offered his condolences to the families of the victims and thanked rescue workers who were dispatched to the scene.
Polish President Karol Nawrocki expressed his “deep sorrow” over the accident, writing in a post on X: “I join the families and loved ones of the victims in prayer and deep sympathy.”
Associated Press writer Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report.
Emergency services attend the scene after a passenger bus went off the road and overturned in a ditch along a highway between Mezokeresztes and Mezonagymihaly in Hungary, Sunday, Aug. 16, 2026. (Zoltan Mathe/MTI via AP)
Emergency services attend the scene after a passenger bus went off the road and overturned in a ditch along a highway between Mezokeresztes and Mezonagymihaly in Hungary, Sunday, Aug. 16, 2026. (Zoltan Mathe/MTI via AP)
Emergency services attend the scene after a passenger bus went off the road and overturned in a ditch along a highway between Mezokeresztes and Mezonagymihaly in Hungary, Sunday, Aug. 16, 2026. (Zoltan Mathe/MTI via AP)
An aerial photo taken by drone shows the emergency services as they attend the scene after a passenger bus went off the road and overturned in a ditch along a highway between Mezokeresztes and Mezonagymihaly in Hungary, Sunday, Aug. 16, 2026. (Zoltan Mathe/MTI via AP)
Emergency services attend the scene after a passenger bus went off the road and overturned in a ditch along a highway between Mezokeresztes and Mezonagymihaly in Hungary, Sunday, Aug. 16, 2026. (Zoltan Mathe/MTI via AP)
