WhatsApp testing privacy feature to protect phone number in communities

With the Phone number privacy feature, WhatsApp users will get a new layer of security to avoid their phone numbers appearing on communities

In late 2022, WhatsApp introduced Communities, a channel to connect multiple groups together under one umbrella to organize group conversations on WhatsApp such as neighborhoods, parents at school, and workplaces.

However, some people had expressed concerns that their numbers are exposed in some groups, which they don't like it to be displayed.

Now, the Meta-owned company is working on a feature to protect the user's phone number appearing on the Communities group, reported WABetaInfo citing the latest beta of Android (v2.23.14.19 and iOS (v23.14.0.70).

WhatsApp Phone number privacy feature. Picture Credit: WABetaInfo

Called 'Phone number privacy', the feature will give users an option to whether their phone number is visible to other members of a community on WhatsApp.

This way, the number is only visible to group admins and people who are already in your contact list. But, others in the group and the communities will not be able to see the full phone number.

In a related development, WhatsApp recently introduce a new way to transfer chat data from an old phone to a new phone. It just needs users to scan the QR code on the phone for data transfer to begin instantly and he/she doesn't need back up their data too. It is the most simple and fastest way to move the data compared to previous methods.

Read more | Here's how to move WhatsApp chat data from old to new phone in short time

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