WhatsApp Rival Signal Will Stop Using Your Phone Number – Here’s why – News18

Encrypted messaging app Signal, also called WhatsApp rival, is testing public account usernames to remove the necessity for customers to share their telephone numbers when connecting to the service. Currently, new Signal customers should share their telephone numbers with others to attach.

Signal VP of engineering Jim O’Leary took to micro-blogging platform X (beforehand referred to as Twitter) and wrote: “Signal is testing username feature. This would mean that you would not have to provide your phone number to people you want to contact. You will be able to set your phone number as private and not share it.”

Although the brand new methodology nonetheless requires customers to affiliate a telephone quantity with their account throughout setup, the quantity will not be shared with different customers after they talk, making communication much more personal and safe.

Signal customers who set up the brand new construct can share their usernames by way of QR code or hyperlink, permitting others to contact them without having to know their telephone quantity. Users can even disable telephone quantity discovery within the app’s Settings underneath Privacy > Phone quantity > Who can discover my quantity.

“Signal has been working on usernames since at least 2019, but it is not known when the feature will be ready for primetime. Using the pre-beta build on desktop and iOS today requires some technical knowhow involving code compiling, more information about which can be found in the Signal forums,” MacRumors reported.

Meanwhile, Signal rival WhatsApp can also be testing this related characteristic. The new characteristic will allow customers to arrange usernames for his or her accounts, as an alternative of cellular numbers.

Users will be capable of entry the brand new characteristic by way of the settings menu underneath the profile part. With the introduction of the username characteristic, customers will get an opportunity to decide on a deal with that represents their preferences. The new characteristic can also be anticipated to reinforce the safety in addition to the privateness of the customers.