Dutch consumer organization Consumentenbond has warned users to be careful when choosing their optional WhatsApp username.

Meta announced the introduction of usernames on June 29, 2026, and encouraged users to reserve their username now.

Meta offers this feature as:

“a major privacy feature designed to help you connect with new people without giving away your phone number.”

The new system gives users three practical choices: reuse an existing Facebook or Instagram name, create a separate unique WhatsApp username, or ignore the feature and keep using a phone number.

But there is an important catch. If you want to claim the same handle you already use on Instagram or Facebook, Meta requires you to link your accounts through Accounts Center. Meta says that adding WhatsApp to Accounts Center enables connected experiences and allows information to be shared across those linked accounts. It also makes it easier for people to connect your WhatsApp identity with your other public Meta profiles.

How matching usernames can hurt your privacy

Reusing your Instagram or Facebook handle on WhatsApp makes it easier to connect your identity across Meta’s apps. Even if your messages stay private, your presence across Meta’s ecosystem becomes more linkable, which can help Meta correlate profile data, behavior, and account history.

Meta’s own help pages say the Accounts Center is meant to manage connected experiences across Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and other Meta products, and that adding WhatsApp enables information sharing across those connected accounts. The issue is not about message content, but the wider data picture around your account and how it is tied together.

And it creates a social-engineering risk. If someone can see or guess your Meta-style username, they may be able to connect your WhatsApp identity to your Instagram or Facebook profile and use information found on your social media accounts for impersonation or other targeted fraud.

Meta also accounted for that risk by reserving usernames for public figures, government entities, and “some variations” of those names so only the legitimate owner can claim them. For example: I was unable to claim my favorite “MetallicaMVP” handle. But reportedly some usernames resembling prominent politicians, celebrities, business figures, and public institutions were still available to reserve.

Our advice

Hiding your phone number is a genuine privacy improvement. But if you reuse the same username across Meta’s apps, you could make it easier for both Meta and other people to connect those accounts.

The safest move is to choose a unique WhatsApp-only username rather than reusing your Facebook or Instagram handle.
If you decide to use a username, treat it like a public identifier: pick something hard to guess, avoid name patterns that map directly to other profiles, and enable any extra contact restrictions available in the app.

WhatsApp lets users restrict who can add them to groups, and it offers a separate option to control who can contact them via a username key or code.

Under Settings > Privacy you can restrict which WhatsApp users can see specific information about you.

Under Settings > Account > Username, you can control who can contact you by username by enabling a username key. Anyone trying to contact you for the first time must know both your username and that key. That should help to contain the social engineering attempts.

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