The username feature essentially allows people on the messaging platform to communicate without sharing their phone numbers.

The government on Friday said it has received the reply from WhatsApp to notice on ‘usernames’ feature and currently it was “examining” the responses sent by the instant messaging platform.

WhatsApp’s reply was received on Thursday night as per the deadline given to the platform by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), sources said.

The notice was issued to the Meta-owned company on July 1, questioning WhatsApp’s proposed username feature, as the government flagged concerns that it could materially increase online fraud, phishing, digital arrest scams, and impersonation attacks.

MeitY had also directed the platform not to launch the feature until consultations on the issue are completed “to the satisfaction of the government”. The username feature essentially allows people on the messaging platform to communicate without sharing their phone numbers.

Subsequently, WhatsApp had sought some more time to submit its response on the proposed ‘username’ feature and had assured the government that it would not roll it out in India until discussions are complete.

While there was no official comments from both MeitY and WhatsApp, the messaging platform said ‘usernames’ are its latest step to make WhatsApp even more private with no directory to browse and no suggestions.

The company noted that people and unknown contacts will need to know a user’s exact username to contact them for the first time and to help control who can reach the person on WhatsApp with the username, the platform has built an optional username key that others will need to know to message.

Privacy feature

“Usernames do not replace your phone number on WhatsApp — you will need your phone number to register and use the service. Usernames is an additional privacy feature that enables you to connect with someone on WhatsApp without giving away your phone number,” Meta said.

It said usernames is rolling out slowly and will only be available globally later this year.

“This is a moment where people can start reserving their usernames. We’re taking our time to get it right and listen to feedback... We’ve built layered protections to protect our users. Existing Facebook and Instagram usernames are reserved for their owners during the reservation period and for a limited time after,” the company had said.

Separately, the highest-profile names — like public figures, government entities, celebrities, and verified Meta accounts — are held so they can only ever be claimed by their legitimate owners, and certain lookalike derivatives of known names are held as well, it explained.

Meanwhile, after sending the notice to WhatsApp, MeitY had also sent notices to Telegram and Signal, raising similar questions on their existing ‘username’ feature and asking how the platforms are addressing concerns related to fraud and impersonation risks. However, MeitY Secretary S Krishnan said that there was still a little more time for both Telegram and Signal, so MeitY has not received replies from them.

While WhatsApp has 50 crore users in India, Telegram has around 10-crore with India being its largest market globally, and Signal estimated to have only around 10-lakh users in India.

Published on July 10, 2026