News

WhatsApp Usernames Are Coming: Here’s How To Claim Yours

Meta says handles will keep phone numbers private. Regulators and fraud watchers are less sure the trade-off is that simple.

Published

4 months ago

July 6, 2026

Dana Saadeh

whatsapp usernames are coming here's how to claim yours

Meta

For more than a decade, using WhatsApp has meant handing out your phone number. But that’s about to change. Meta announced last week that the messaging platform will introduce usernames – handles that can stand in for a phone number, keeping personal contact details private.

The feature isn’t live yet, and a global rollout will unfold over the coming months. But reservations are already open, and the scramble has begun. Anyone hoping to carry the same handle across every platform will want to move quickly.

Reservations are currently limited to the mobile app. On iPhone, users will need to tap the You button, open their profile, and select “Create Username” or “Reserve Username,” depending on whether the rollout has reached them. On Android, the same options sit under the three-dot menu, in Settings, via your profile. There’s also a shortcut: users can claim their existing Facebook or Instagram handle, provided nobody has taken it first – though anyone chasing privacy may prefer a fresh name that isn’t linked to their other accounts.

The rules are similar to other online platforms. Usernames must be unique, between three and 35 characters, and composed of lowercase letters, numbers, underscores, and periods. All-number handles are banned, as are restricted words or phrases. If someone changes or deletes a claimed name, it returns to the pool after 14 days. Meta hasn’t said how many changes each user will be allowed, only that a limit is coming.

Also Read: Instagram Now Lets You Tune Its Algorithm, But There’s One Big Catch

The harder part of the puzzle is fraud. Meta plans an authorization key for first-time contact by username, but it hasn’t explained how it will police copycats impersonating public figures, which is a real concern when social media scams have already cost users billions of dollars.

Reuters reported that India’s government wants Meta to freeze the rollout until it justifies the feature and details how it will combat the elevated fraud risks. With more than 500 million users, India is WhatsApp’s largest market, and will be the first regulatory test of whether usernames launch everywhere at once.

News

Abu Dhabi’s Robot Kitchen Is Serving Up Biryani, Not Burgers

Circus SE wants to put a tiny automated factory inside the buildings where Gulf residents live and work, bypassing part of last-mile delivery.

Published

5 days ago

October 20, 2026

Nour Nasir

abu dhabi's robot kitchen is serving up biryani not burgers

Circus SE

The most telling thing about a new autonomous kitchen now running in Abu Dhabi’s Marina Square is what it won’t cook:

“We don’t do fast food,” says Nikolas Bullwinkel, Founder and CEO of Circus SE. “We’ve actively decided not to build a machine that can only do burgers”.

Instead, the CA-1 system is built around pot-based cooking: curries, pastas, soups and rice dishes. After experimenting with highly personalized recipes, Circus deliberately leaned back toward recognizable food. “We’re going with a chicken biryani because you know it,” Bullwinkel says of the AED 40 dish.

circus se ca-1 robot system

The Germany-based robotics and food technology company operates across eight countries, and Abu Dhabi is its first deployment outside Europe. More locations are expected there and in Dubai.

In Germany, its units can be placed in supermarkets, gas stations, airports and hospitals. In the Gulf, Bullwinkel wants them inside residential and office buildings, replacing some of the complexity of last-mile delivery. “We’re basically bringing a very tiny factory a few square meters into your building,” he says. Catering company Royal Prestige supplies the ingredients and knowledge of local tastes.

The CA-1 manages up to 36 refrigerated ingredient silos alongside automated induction cooking, robotic plating and a self-cleaning dishwasher. Two robotic arms move ingredients through the system with minimal human intervention. It can produce up to 120 hot meals an hour, and a meal such as rice and curry can take around three to four minutes.

Also Read: Ooredoo Qatar’s 5G+ Network Is Built For Machines As Much As People

Five cameras and multiple sensors monitor heat, temperature and consistency, an attempt to approximate what a chef perceives. “You can hear something gets burned, you can smell it, you can see it at some point,” Bullwinkel says. CircusOS, the company’s operating system, adjusts recipes in real time.

You might think of the platform as a threat to kitchen staff, but Bullwinkel frames Circus as a way for chefs to develop recipes and distribute them at scale. With that being said, rising labor costs and shortages are also part of his case for automation.