Back in November 2022, WhatsApp started the official rollout of its Communities feature to bring like-minded people together in a structured manner. Over the period of time, WhatsApp has upgraded Communities with handy features and now it looks like one such feature might make headway soon. Keep reading to find out what.
Phone Number Privacy in WhatsApp Communities
Based on a WABetaInfo report, WhatsApp has started to release a Phone Number Privacy feature for Communities that is available as part of the WhatsApp Beta for Android 2.23.14.19 and WhatsApp Beta for iOS 23.14.0.70 version updates.
With this update, WhatsApp is looking to make joining Communities more ‘anonymous’ for you. Earlier, if you interacted with Community messages using message reactions, it would have revealed your phone number or if you were the group admin. However, this is set to change now.
As you can see in the above screenshot, there is a new option in the community announcement group info. With the new update, an alert will be prompted to you notifying you that your phone number will remain only visible to the community admins and people who have your number saved.
This means that from now on whenever you join a community and interact with community messages your phone number will stay hidden. This feature will not only help you maintain your anonymity but will also reduce the risk of frauds and scams that have become more than common on the Meta-owned messaging platform.
Another thing to note is that in case you want to privately contact any community member, you can send them a request. If the other person approves then only their phone number will be visible to you. And the reverse is applicable as well.
As of now, this feature is only live for some lucky Android and iOS beta testers. However, we are expecting a wider rollout of this functionality soon. In the meanwhile, comment down your thoughts on this new WhatsApp privacy feature below.
