How does WhatsApp’s username feature compare to Telegram’s? | Explained

The Union government has moved to block WhatsApp’s username feature, from which the Meta-owned messaging platform is currently taking bookings. In a notice posted to the social media platform, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) wrote that hiding phone numbers and only showing usernames “can significantly increase the incidence of online fraud, phishing, digital detention fraud and impersonation attacks by allowing bad actors to solicit and send messages to victims.”

The notification led to comparisons with Telegram, which was banned during the week leading up to the NEET re-examination last month. Signal, another widely used rival of Telegram and WhatsApp, has had a username feature that hides phone numbers for years.

WhatsApp feature

The username feature on WhatsApp is not yet available; In its statement, Meta said that it will be gradually made available in the coming months. The feature essentially allows people to share just a username and an optional PIN with new contacts they might not feel comfortable sharing their phone number with.

Meta says that when it receives a message from a user who has hidden their phone number, WhatsApp will display their country of origin and notify users if the message recipient is already in their phone contacts.

MeitY said in its notice that the feature “may facilitate impersonation and identity fraud, including the impersonation of individuals, public officials, financial institutions, and government entities, by allowing the adoption of usernames that closely resemble the usernames of natural persons or entities.” A WhatsApp spokesperson said it had already “reserved” usernames of prominent personalities to prevent them from being used by scammers.

Telegram feature

Telegram’s username feature works by allowing anyone to choose a username and allowing anyone with the username to message someone with just that information. “We recommend that you do not set a username on Telegram if you are not happy with this,” the messaging company said on its website.

Just like on WhatsApp, using a Telegram username does not reveal users’ phone numbers unless they enable showing that username in the app’s settings.

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Telegram has elaborated username settings over time. For example, the app hosts a running auction for short and catchy usernames on blockchain site Fragment. It also allows users to claim inactive usernames if a user already has the same username on two major social media platforms.

Telegram’s username feature was not a key part of the ban it suffered last month. This was because some Telegram “channels” (easier to operate here than WhatsApp) could hack into the question paper PDF of a finished exam as if it were a message sent days ago. The government argued that this could lead to panic that a leak had occurred.

In both the Telegram and WhatsApp cases, the government has shown an increasing willingness to veto the platform’s architectural choices as part of regulating cyberspace. WhatsApp was instructed to delay the username feature until “consultations” between Meta and the government were achieved to the government’s “satisfaction”.