Meta-owned WhatsApp is among the most popular instant messaging apps in the world. Over the past few months, WhatsApp has added a lot of new features, including improved privacy and security, the ability to easily move data from Android to iOS and vice versa, and more. Now, the company is working on improved privacy for Community users.
The Communities feature lets users create groups around a common topic that others can discuss. It can also be a one-way communication channel for brands and celebrities. However, once a user joins a Community, their phone number can be accessed by others in the group when they post a message or react to a message. Now, WhatsApp is offering the ability to hide a user's phone number from other participants of a Community (via WABetaInfo).
WhatsApp Communities is getting an option to hide phone numbers as an added privacy layer
A new feature called Phone Number Privacy can be enabled in Community settings. Once enabled, a user's phone number is not visible to anyone in the Community. This adds one more layer of privacy for users. This feature can be disabled or enabled on a per-Community basis. However, there is a catch. The phone numbers of Community owners are always visible to people who join that Community.
Users also have the option to request a Community member's phone number if it is hidden. Once they request it, the request goes to the user, and if they allow it, their phone number is visible to the user who requested it. This feature is already available to some users but could make it to more users with version 2.23.14.19 of the app on Android devices.
