Summary
- WhatsApp may require future usernames to be registered with Instagram or Facebook for advance booking.
- According to WABetaInfo, the verification will be carried out by the Meta Account Center, associating the name with the WhatsApp account after confirmation.
- The function may reach testers by 2026, with its own formatting rules for identifiers.
Advance reservation of WhatsApp usernames can be integrated into the Meta ecosystem. Apparently, the user will need to have the desired username on Instagram or Facebook to be able to claim it on the messenger.
The system, discovered by the specialized website WABetaInfo in beta version 2.25.34.3 of the Android app, it indicates that Meta will prioritize the unification of digital identity, requiring the user to prove that they are the “owner” of the username on another platform in the house.
WhatsApp is preparing this reservation system for users to guarantee their @ before the global launch of the tool.
How will it work?
According to the portal, the user must enter the username they already use on Instagram or Facebook. WhatsApp will then guide you through a verification process through the Meta Account Center to confirm ownership.
Once ownership is confirmed, the username will be automatically associated with the WhatsApp account and will be “reserved”. This ensures that, even when the function is released to everyone, no one will be able to take the name you have already verified. For companies, the measure must protect the brand identity.
However, the obligation to own the Meta ecosystem would limit the resource (or at least the reservation) for those who already have a Facebook or Instagram.
Users who wish to create a completely new username without any ties to their other Meta accounts will likely have to wait for the @ system to be fully released to the general public.
When does the update arrive?
The username reserve is expected to be released in a future update, first to a limited group of testers. There is no set date for this yet, but the expectation is that the complete username system will start working on WhatsApp by the second half of 2026.
For those waiting for the release, it is worth remembering the formatting rules that WhatsApp must impose for @. Although the focus of the reservation is on existing names, the final format of the identifiers must follow a standard:
- Size: between 3 and 30 characters;
- Content: must include at least one letter, and may use numbers, periods and underlines;
- Prohibitions: the system must block names that begin with “www”, end with domains (such as “.com”), begin or end with periods, or that contain periods in sequence (..).
Source: https://tecnoblog.net/noticias/whatsapp-pode-exigir-instagram-ou-facebook-para-reserva-de-nome-de-usuario/
