Table of Contents
- introduction
- How to Hide Your Phone Number in WhatsApp
- How to Change Your WhatsApp Phone Number
- Final Thoughts
- frequently asked questions
- What is the “hide phone number” feature in WhatsApp?
- Why is the “hide phone number” feature important?
- Can I change my WhatsApp number to a different number on the same device?
- Is there a legal issue if someone has my hidden phone number and calls me on WhatsApp?
- How can I ensure the security of my hidden phone number?
introduction
When you first create a WhatsApp account, you sign up using your existing phone number, which allows you to access your phone’s contact list. However, not every user is going to want to connect their phone number to WhatsApp, especially if you’re interested in chatting privately with new connections online.
So, is there any way to hide your phone number on WhatsApp?
Unfortunately, there’s no simple method for hiding your phone number from WhatsApp—you need to use a valid phone number to sign up with the service. But that doesn’t mean you have to use your real number.
Let’s take a look at how you can signup for WhatsApp without giving the app your main phone number.
How to Hide Your Phone Number in WhatsApp
As mentioned, you have to use a phone number to create a WhatsApp account. But if you want to hide your real phone number, you can use one of several online services to get a burner number to connect to your account.
Let’s take a look at the services you can use to do this.
Getting a New Phone Number
There are more than a dozen services online that you can use to get a secondary number.
Google Voice is our top pick and is perfect for our purposes. It offers personal and business services and is frequently updated on both web and mobile. Voice even allows you to use your number to forward calls, make free phone calls in the United States, and text your family and friends with ease.
Your number can be used to make and receive calls and texts. It’s a great service, especially for free, and it comes as our top recommended service for anyone looking for a new phone number to use with WhatsApp.
Like Google Voice, Talkatone makes it easy to get a free phone number. The service gives you an alternate phone number for calling and texting, complete with a US or Canada-based area code.
Talkatone even lets you change this number when you need to. Talkatone does include ads, but if you’re only using the phone number to verify your account, this shouldn’t be much of a problem.
Setting Up a New WhatsApp AccountAlright, once you’re armed with your new number from any of the services we outlined above, you’re ready to begin setting up a new WhatsApp account.
For this article, we’re using the Android version of WhatsApp.
- Start by logging out of your WhatsApp account completely.
- Instead of entering your current phone number, enter the secondary number you created through Google Voice (or the alternative you chose).
- Hit “Next,” and WhatsApp will ask you to verify your number.
- Make sure you entered your number correctly and hit “OK” to continue to the next step.
, and once this is done, you’ll be brought to your new inbox.</p><p>Despite using your alternate number, you can still view your contacts automatically from your primary device, though keep in mind that they won’t see your name in your account unless you give them your alternate number or you start messaging them through the service.</p><h2 id='section-5' class=)
How to Change Your WhatsApp Phone NumberIf you’ve been using WhatsApp for years and don’t want to create an entirely new account, it is possible to change the number inside the settings of your WhatsApp account.
- Open WhatsApp
- Tap DONE to save and verify the new phone number.
After following these steps, WhatsApp will update your account to include your Google Voice phone number.
Final Thoughts
While WhatsApp requires your phone number to sign up, there’s nothing to stop you from using an alternate or burner phone number to effectively “hide” your real number.
When you choose to use an alternate number on WhatsApp, you can give that number to your friends, family, and associates, while simultaneously protecting your primary phone number from people you don’t know well.
frequently asked questions
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