WhatsApp introduces username: Data protection rethought!

WhatsApp introduces username: Data protection rethought!

WhatsApp plans to have a significant innovation: In the future, users should have the opportunity to use individual user names instead of their mobile phone number. This function was discovered in an iOS test version of Wabtanfo.com and could significantly improve the data protection of users. The advantage of this new feature is that contacts can be made without having to reveal personal telephone numbers, which is of great importance in today's digital world. Rules for the user names are also stipulated: these must not be "www." Start, at least one letter must be contained and cannot be assigned twice.

The development of this username function has already started in 2023, but so far there is no specific publication date. The test phase may take longer before the feature is accessible to all users. Signal and telegram already offer similar functions, whereby signal users can change or remove their username as often as possible. It remains to be seen whether WhatsApp will offer a similar flexibility.

WhatsApp and its competition

according to ZDF is what is currently used by almost three billion people worldwide. Since its foundation in 2009 and the takeover by Meta in 2014, Messenger has become one of the most used services. In the competitive situation, however, the question of the user loyalty, especially since WhatsApp, is in court in the US

Telegram, which was founded in 2013, has around 900 million monthly active users and is marketed as a safe messenger, but has no standard end-to-end encryption. Users must activate them individually for each chat. Signal, since 2014 on the market, is one of the safest messenger with around 100 million users; It not only protects the content of messages, but also the metadata, so that the operator cannot understand how to communicate with whom users.

alternatives to WhatsApp

In the world of messenger apps, there are numerous alternatives that meet different safety and data protection requirements. According to Consumer Center there are some services due to the lack of end-to-end-to-end-to-end list. For example, Snapchat and Google Chat were not taken into account. Services that offer such encryption, including Signal and Threema, have established themselves as popular alternatives.

Threema stands out as a paid service that uses an accidentally generated ID for registration. This enables users to only share personal data such as telephone numbers and email addresses on request. A fine difference to WhatsApp, where a mobile phone number is required for registration and private data are recorded.