No Need to Worry About Usernames on WhatsApp!

No Need to Worry About Usernames on WhatsApp!
New Delhi, July 3: WhatsApp has responded to the notice issued by the Centre regarding the username feature. It clarified that the claim that people were reserving the usernames of film, political, and sports celebrities, as well as those of prominent organizations, by exploiting this newly proposed feature, is false. It dismissed such reports as untrue. The company stated that it is regulating the system so that such usernames can be reserved only by the respective celebrities or organizations themselves. WhatsApp released a set of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) to clear up the doubts and suspicions surrounding this feature. “There is false propaganda going around claiming that popular and prominent usernames are being reserved by random people. That is not true. Such usernames can be reserved only by their actual owners,” the company clarified. A WhatsApp official spokesperson stated that, at present, only the process of reserving usernames through this feature is underway, that the feature has not yet been officially rolled out for use, and that it will be officially made available by the end of this year. “We have blocked the usernames of celebrities, government organizations, and already-verified Meta accounts so that no one else can reserve them. Only their legitimate owners can obtain them. Moreover, we have also blocked usernames that resemble the names of prominent individuals and organizations,” he explained. WhatsApp stated that if anyone tries to reserve such usernames, they will simply get a response saying they are unavailable. It also revealed that if any new person wants to send us a message via WhatsApp, they must definitely know our username. Additionally, it said limits have been placed on how many new people can be contacted through a single account.