India Gives Meta 3 More Days on WhatsApp Username Feature

India has given Meta three more days to defend WhatsApp’s planned username feature. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology issued the original notice on July 1, 2026, telling the company to explain why action should not be taken against it under Indian law. Meta has told officials the feature will not launch in India until the consultations close, with WhatsApp’s largest market now tied to a Rs 22,500 crore fraud backdrop.

India Hits Pause on WhatsApp’s Username Push

The Centre granted Meta three additional days this week to respond to the IT Ministry’s notice on the username feature. The original notice arrived on Wednesday, July 1, 2026, the ministry’s first formal move against a feature Meta had only just begun to announce. Meta was given until Friday, July 3 to file its reply, then asked for more time after a team met ministry officials the same day. The extension now pushes the deadline into the following week.

Meta has assured the government it will not roll out the feature in India until the talks are complete, sources told The Hindu. The company framed the feature, which lets users chat without sharing phone numbers, as a privacy upgrade built on the existing phone-number based system. India is WhatsApp’s largest single market, hosting more than 850 million of the platform’s accounts.

1. July 1, 2026: The IT Ministry issues a notice asking Meta to justify the username feature or face action under the IT Act.
2. July 3, 2026: The original deadline; a Meta team meets IT Ministry officials the same day and asks for more time.
3. Three-day extension granted: Meta is given until the following Monday to file its full reply, and assures the government the feature won’t roll out in India until talks close.

What Meta Says It Has Already Built

Meta has built its username feature around what it calls layered defences against impersonation and fraud. The phone number stays the account’s identity; the username is a handle layered on top, so a phone number is still required to create a WhatsApp account. Each safeguard is layered on top of the existing account structure, the company says. Other users need to know the exact username to message a person. The platform will limit how many new people an account can contact and block repeated attempts to guess someone’s username key.

Meta has reserved the highest-profile usernames for the people and institutions that already own them. The list includes public figures, government entities, celebrities, and verified Meta accounts. Lookalike derivatives of those known names are held too, the company told the BBC.

To protect against impersonation, we have held the highest-profile names, think public figures, government entities, celebrities, verified Meta accounts, so they can only ever be claimed by their legitimate owners and lookalike derivatives of known names are held as well.

The Meta spokesperson, quoted by the BBC, said the company had built multiple layers of defence into the feature.

WhatsApp will also surface contextual details before a user replies to a first-time sender. Recipients will see whether the sender is a new account, a saved contact, a mutual group member, or based in another country. The user can then decide whether to respond. The same information appears for voice calls placed through a username, Meta says.

Meta has not publicly addressed whether it will modify the feature based on India’s concerns. A spokesperson told the BBC the company only planned to roll out the feature in phases later this year. The three-day extension gives Meta until early the following week to file its full reply to the IT Ministry.

The Rs 22,500 Crore Context India Won’t Ignore

India’s pushback is anchored in a specific worry: that a feature designed to hide phone numbers will give cover to fraudsters who already run industrial-scale campaigns. The IT Ministry’s notice said the feature ‘may materially increase the incidence of online fraud, phishing, digital arrest scams and impersonation attacks,’ the BBC reports. India logged nearly 102,000 cybercrime cases in 2024, an 18% jump on the year before, with nearly three-quarters involving online fraud. The 2024 financial fraud figure alone ran to Rs 22,845 crore, Vishvas News reports. The numbers have only grown since.

In a ‘digital arrest’ scam, fraudsters pose as officers from agencies such as the Enforcement Directorate, the CBI, or local police and confine victims to video calls for days at a time while extracting payments. The pattern has grown sharply on the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal over the past three years, according to an analysis of India’s 2024-25 fraud data. The ministry’s framing ties the proposed WhatsApp feature to that trend, not to the abstract idea of usernames. India is the world’s largest WhatsApp market, and the IT Ministry’s caution is calibrated to that scale.

• 850 million+ WhatsApp users in India (BBC)
• 3 billion+ WhatsApp users globally (NDTV)
• Rs 22,500 crore lost to cyber fraud in India in 2025 (NDTV)
• 39,925 to nearly 1.25 lakh digital-arrest cases on the NCRP portal from 2022 to 2024 (Vishvas News)

How the Username Feature Actually Works

The username feature is, at its core, a privacy upgrade that takes the phone number out of certain everyday interactions. WhatsApp currently uses phone numbers as the primary identifier for adding contacts and starting conversations. With a username, the number stays private unless the user chooses to share it.

Phone numbers will no longer be visible in two specific situations, both tied to who initiates contact. When a user is added to a large group chat, the phone number stays hidden. When a user messages a person for the first time, the phone number stays hidden too. The phone number remains the account’s identity; the username acts as a public handle.

Users can pick a username between three and 35 characters, and the username must be unique on WhatsApp. Other users need to know the exact username to reach someone; there is no searchable directory, no friend suggestions, and no way to discover accounts by typing partial names. A separate username key can be set by the user to gate first-time messages, a code that resets at any time. The username must also be available across other Meta platforms, Instagram and Facebook included, before it can be claimed on WhatsApp, according to the rules for WhatsApp usernames and cross-platform availability. Linking the same username across platforms would expose the connection between accounts.

• Pick a username between 3 and 35 characters, with at least one letter
• Phone number stays hidden in large group adds
• Phone number stays hidden in first-time messages
• No searchable directory, no friend suggestions, no partial-name discovery
• An optional username key gates first-time contact and can be reset at any time
• Username must be available across Meta platforms, or claimable via Accounts Center verification

The Telegram and Signal Notices That Followed

The WhatsApp notice is the latest in a pattern of regulatory pressure on global technology companies in India. In February 2026, the government amended its rules to require social media platforms to remove unlawful content within three hours of being notified, replacing a 36-hour deadline. The new push on WhatsApp sits inside that same enforcement arc.

After the WhatsApp notice, the IT Ministry sent similar notices to Telegram and Signal, asking how their existing username features address fraud and impersonation risks. WhatsApp has 50 crore users in India, according to sources cited by The Hindu; Telegram’s reach is a fraction of that. The government separately argues that features like username-based interactions and concealed phone numbers create challenges for law enforcement, a position the platform unsuccessfully challenged in court. The BBC reports the ministry cited provisions of India’s Information Technology Act and the country’s technology rules governing intermediary due diligence, identity theft, and impersonation offences.

On Saturday, July 4, 2026, the IT Ministry also issued a stern notice to Meta over child sexual abuse material circulating in Instagram advertisements, giving the company seven days to explain. Telegram was separately directed to crack down on pirated films and other audio-visual material on its platform. India’s parallel order to Meta over Instagram CSAM ads landed within three days of the WhatsApp notice, part of the same regulatory sweep.

Where Digital Rights Groups Push Back

The Internet Freedom Foundation has called the WhatsApp notice ‘an attempt by the executive to decide what a software feature can be’ and said it has ‘no clear basis in law‘. The foundation argues that the laws cited by the ministry do not give the government the power to require prior permission for a feature before launch. ‘The power to require prior permission for a feature is not in the [Information Technology] Act, not in the Rules, and cannot be created by a notice,’ the foundation said in a statement quoted by the BBC. The argument is that the ministry is using a notice to do what rulemaking would normally be needed to do.

Meta has not publicly responded to the IFF critique, and the IT Ministry has not rebutted it on the record. WhatsApp has not yet rolled out the username feature globally; a Meta spokesperson told the BBC the rollout will happen in phases later this year. India’s pause is unlikely to lift until Meta files its reply and the ministry signs off.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the WhatsApp username feature live in India?

No. Meta has been given a three-day extension to respond to the IT Ministry’s notice, and the company has committed to not launching the feature in India until consultations with the government end. WhatsApp’s username feature is not yet live anywhere; Meta told the BBC it plans a phased global rollout later this year.

What changes for users once the username feature goes live?

When live, the user’s phone number will no longer be automatically visible in two situations: when they are added to a large group chat, and when someone messages them for the first time. The phone number remains the account’s identity; the username acts as a public handle.

Why is the Indian government pushing back on the feature?

India’s IT Ministry sent a formal notice to Meta on July 1 setting out its concerns. The BBC reports the ministry believes the feature could materially increase online fraud, phishing, digital-arrest scams, and impersonation attacks in India. The backdrop is a year in which Indians lost Rs 22,500 crore to cyber fraud, with nearly 102,000 cybercrime cases registered in 2024, up 18% year-on-year.

What safeguards has Meta promised in the username feature?

Meta says accounts can only be reached by users who know the exact username. The platform will cap how many new users an account can contact, block repeated attempts to guess a username key, and flag first-time senders with information about whether they are new, in the user’s contacts, in a mutual group, or based in another country. The company has also reserved usernames for public figures, government entities, celebrities, and verified Meta accounts.

When might the WhatsApp username feature launch in India?

Meta has not given a date. The company told the BBC the rollout will be phased later this year. In India, the rollout is held until the IT Ministry’s concerns are addressed.