CRM · 5 min read · Savina Bansal
WhatsApp Usernames Are Coming: Will Your CRM Break?
WhatsApp usernames hide phone numbers, so Meta added BSUID, a new customer ID. India’s rollout is on hold. Here’s what to fix in your CRM before it lands.
Building the platform this article is about
WhatsApp usernames let people chat without sharing their phone number. To keep businesses working, Meta added the BSUID, a customer ID that doesn’t need a phone number. India’s username rollout is on hold after a government notice in July 2026. Ohanvi, a WhatsApp marketing platform, explains what a BSUID is and what to fix before usernames arrive.
The problem in one example
Neha runs a skincare brand in Pune. Her CRM knows every customer by phone number. Her bot answers “where’s my order?” by matching that number to Shopify.
Now imagine a customer who uses a WhatsApp username. They message Neha. The message arrives with no phone number.
The CRM creates a new, blank contact. The bot can’t find the order. The customer gets asked the same questions again.
What is a BSUID?
BSUID stands for business-scoped user ID. Meta’s definition: a unique ID you can use to message a WhatsApp user when you don’t know their phone number.
It looks like a two-letter country code, a dot, then up to 128 letters and numbers. Meta’s example is US.13491208655302741918.
It’s tied to your business. The same customer has a different BSUID with every other business.
Groups of businesses can share one. A parent BSUID, marked with ENT after the country code, works across the accounts a company links together.
The quotable version: a BSUID is your customer’s WhatsApp ID with you, and it works even when you can’t see their phone number.
Key dates
| When | What happened |
|---|---|
| Early April 2026 | BSUIDs started appearing in WhatsApp message data |
| 29 June 2026 | Businesses could start reserving usernames |
| 1–2 July 2026 | India’s IT ministry told WhatsApp not to launch usernames in India until consultations conclude |
| July 2026 | Meta’s API began supporting messages sent to a BSUID |
Dates from Meta’s business-scoped user ID documentation, and from MediaNama and The Next Web for the ministry’s notice.
When will you still see the phone number?
Meta says the phone number stays in the message if either is true: you messaged or called that customer in the last 30 days, or the customer is in your WhatsApp contact book, which Meta keeps for you.
OTP and login messages still need a phone number. One-tap, zero-tap and copy-code authentication templates can’t use a BSUID.
What’s happening in India
In early July 2026, MeitY said usernames could increase fraud, phishing and impersonation, and told WhatsApp not to launch them in India until consultations conclude.
Meta told the government it will not launch usernames in India until those talks finish. As of this post, no launch date has been announced for India.
Five things to check now
Does your CRM have a field for the BSUID, alongside the phone number?
Can it find a contact by either one?
Does your bot need a phone number to look up an order? Give it a BSUID path too.
Will your reports count one customer twice if the phone number disappears?
Do your login OTPs still go by phone number? They must.
Where Ohanvi stands
Ohanvi’s CRM matches contacts by phone number today. BSUID support is being built and will ship before usernames launch in India, so a customer who writes in from a username lands on the same contact record as before.
Ohanvi’s built-in CRM is on every plan, including ₹0 a month.
One contact record, every channel
Questions this answers
- What is a BSUID on WhatsApp?
- A BSUID, or business-scoped user ID, is a unique ID Meta gives each WhatsApp user for each business. Businesses can use it to message a customer when the phone number is hidden behind a username. It starts with a country code and a dot, for example US.13491208655302741918.
- Are WhatsApp usernames available in India?
- Not yet. In July 2026, India’s IT ministry asked WhatsApp not to launch usernames in India until consultations conclude, citing fraud and impersonation risks. Meta said it will not launch the feature in India until those talks finish. Indian businesses still see phone numbers for now.
- Will usernames stop my WhatsApp OTP messages?
- No. Meta says one-tap, zero-tap and copy-code authentication templates still need the user’s phone number, so they can’t use a BSUID. OTP messages keep going to phone numbers even after usernames launch.
