WhatsApp Usernames Explained: Privacy Gains and Scam Risks

The report explains that WhatsApp's new username reservation feature (opened June 29, 2026) decouples contact discovery from phone numbers—improving user privacy—but creates a new impersonation and social-engineering surface. Threats include squatting, typosquats, executive-adjacent handles, and reservation-themed phishing/smishing that can lead to account takeover via harvested SMS codes; recommended actions are to defensively reserve corporate and executive handles, secure linked Instagram/Facebook accounts, prepare takedown/reporting paths, and update SOC/phishing detection and user awareness during the reservation window.