In the world of tech companies, copying ideas is common, and the introduction of a feature by one brand can make it seem like they came up with it first.
Signal recently introduced public usernames for enhanced anonymity, and now WhatsApp is developing channel usernames to make it easier to share and find channels.
The addition of usernames on WhatsApp should eliminate confusion when sharing channels that are not a single word, and Meta has previous experience with adding usernames on Facebook Messenger.
It should come to no one’s surprise that tech companies copy each other all the time. Even if ideas are being worked on simultaneously without the other’s influence, if one brand introduces a specific feature first, then everyone will feel like that brand solely came up with the feature. That might ring true in the case of usernames on both Signal and WhatsApp. Just days ago, Signal introduced to the world public usernames for individuals to enhance anonymity.
Today, WhatsApp’s developers showed that they are working on something similar, but it’ll work a bit differently.
Back in May, WhatsApp was testing tools to bring usernames to individuals, but it has not materialized in much more than that. That’s exactly what Signal just announced for its platform.
According to the always reliable WABetaInfo, WhatsApp is now developing channel usernames to make it easier to share and find channels. We suspect that channels will get a personalized link based on their username, which will make it easier to directly feed people into the platform as a whole via other social media apps.
People who are in the WhatsApp for Android beta program through Google Play (which is full at the moment) don’t yet have access to the new feature, but breadcrumbs show that it’s being worked on. The latest beta version as of publication is 2.23.24.17, and with it being now six months after individual usernames were discussed, we could see this taking a long time as well.
That’s not to say we’re disappointed at the potential for a long wait, though. As long as WhatsApp continues churning out these small user experience enhancements over long periods of time, we’re happy.
WhatsApp username support in development
Channel usernames should eliminate any confusion that people have when sharing channels that aren’t simply one word. When people — not just channels — get usernames as well in a future update, it should theoretically be simple to find whoever and whatever you need to on Meta’s app.
Meta, which owns WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, and more, has some experience with adding usernames retroactively. Back in 2016, Meta added the feature to Facebook Messenger, which also enabled easy-to-follow links back to people’s profiles.
WhatsApp has been aggressively developed for a while now by Meta. The company may have finally found a way to monetize the platform by introducing ads in channels, but not in your personal messages (for now).
It’s also introduced a new calendar feature to make finding old conversations a breeze. Even with these updates, we think it desperately needs some new customization options, as my colleague Chandraveer Mathur writes. Usernames are a great addition to any social media platform, and we hope to see it sooner rather than later on WhatsApp.