Notification of government issues for WhatsApp regarding the username feature
The username feature mimics something available in other apps like Telegram and Signal, where users can chat without sharing their phone numbers. File. | Photo credit: Reuters
WhatsApp’s new username feature – which will allow users to communicate without revealing their phone numbers – is drawing skepticism from the Union government, with a senior official saying on Wednesday (1 July 2026) that the government is concerned about the potential for spam and spoofing. The government has sent WhatsApp a notice asking it to suspend the feature for the time being.
“We believe that this feature can substantially increase the incidence of online fraud, phishing, digital arrest fraud and impersonation attacks by allowing bad actors to solicit and message victims,” the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) said in a notice to WhatsApp’s chief compliance officer in India, a copy of which was reviewed by The Hindu.
The government told the firm to “provide a detailed explanation of the ‘usernames’ feature within 3 days” and to stay out of the process until “detailed consultations” take place, the official said.
The username feature mimics something available in other apps like Telegram and Signal, where users can chat without sharing their phone numbers. “When someone new enters your life — a classmate, a neighbor, someone you meet at an event — sharing a phone number can seem like a big step,” Meta, which owns WhatsApp, said earlier this week. “That’s because a phone number is personal and connected to so many parts of your life. Sometimes you just want to chat without giving away your digits.”
“The option to use a username is not yet live and will be rolled out slowly later this year,” a WhatsApp spokesperson said in a statement shared with The Hindu. “To protect against impersonation, we hold the highest profile names – think public figures, government entities, celebrities, verified Meta accounts – so only their legitimate owners can claim them, and similar derivatives of well-known names are also held.” Users can choose whether or not to reply to unknown accounts and their country of origin will be displayed, the firm added.
The feature would come with built-in spam detection features, such as telling message recipients which country the phone number is from, Meta said in its announcement. “To help you control who can contact you on WhatsApp with your username, we’ve created an optional username key that others need to know in order to message you,” the company said.
The announcement comes days after the Union government banned Telegram amid fears that outdated question papers could spread panic amid the second part of the National Eligibility Entrance Examination after the first paper was leaked. Telegram masking users’ phone numbers in favor of a username was also included in the ban, which survived a challenge in the Delhi High Court and has now been lifted.
WhatsApp control
WhatsApp is a private messaging platform that operates on the Internet, but the Union government is increasingly pushing for major platforms. Last year, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) ordered Meta to ensure that users cannot use the app if the SIM card they used to register for the service is not physically in service and to log out WhatsApp users every six hours. While the second mandate has been revoked, the first remains.
WhatsApp has more than 800 million users in India, which is more than a quarter of their global user base of 3 billion. While the firm has resisted compromises on end-to-end messaging encryption — by challenging part of the IT rules in the Delhi High Court — Meta has signaled a more accommodating approach in recent years, for example by opting to adhere to SIM card binding guidelines.
WhatsApp’s role as a core infrastructure has also led to government scrutiny. After the 2022 outage incident, IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology will demand an explanation from Meta about the incident.
Published – 01 Jul 2026 20:49 IST