WhatsApp brings phone number privacy feature for community members

Meta-owned WhatsApp on Tuesday announced that it was releasing a phone number privacy feature for community members, WaBetaInfo reported. 

According to the app-tracking website, users can get the feature once they install the most recent update of WhatsApp for iOS and Android.

However, some users might be able to get the same feature by installing certain previous versions of the app. It will be rolled out to more people in the coming days. 

The instant messaging app continues to strengthen the privacy of users and started testing a new feature that would add an extra layer of privacy when joining a community. 

The feature would ensure that the phone numbers of members are hidden from one another. When you join a community, you will be unable to see the numbers of other members and vice versa. 

The community participants list is also hidden and users will be unable to interact with the community announcement group through message reactions as this would reveal their numbers. 

However, this feature would keep the number hidden even when someone reacts to a message. Currently, a limited group of users are able to use this feature. 

Through this feature, users get alerted that their phone numbers can only be seen by the admins and others who have saved them as a contact. 

This feature is only available to community members as the admins’ numbers are always visible. It will allow members to interact with each other by remaining anonymous. 

“In addition, in case you are able to privately contact a community member whose phone number is hidden, you will have the option to send them a request so that they can choose to share their phone number with you,” said the WhatsApp watcher.