How to get a whatsapp phone number

How does WhatsApp use your phone number? That’s probably the number one question on everyone’s minds, as the messaging giant continues to dominate people’s mobile devices. As a Facebook-owned entity, privacy-conscious people wouldn’t be blamed for wondering what part their phone number plays in WhatsApp.

Read more: How to use WhatsApp — a step-by-step beginner’s guide

How to find your number on WhatsApp

WhatsApp doesn’t assign you a unique number, so your WhatsApp phone number is just your mobile phone number. But you can view the number associated with your account by going to Settings and tapping your user picture to open your profile.

At the bottom of the screen is the number registered to your WhatsApp account. But seriously, who forgets their mobile phone number?

How to change your WhatsApp number on the same phone

If you swap the SIM card on your phone and start using a new number, you’re going to have to change the number associated with your WhatsApp account. Otherwise, your previous chat history and media will become inaccessible, and you’ll essentially be starting again from scratch.

First, put the new SIM card into your phone. Then on WhatsApp, go to Settings—>Account—>Change number.

Now type in the old phone number and the new phone number. Don’t forget to include the international dialing codes.

You will receive a confirmation that you are transferring from one number to another. Select whether or not you would like your contacts to be notified of your new number or not. Finally, tap DONE at the bottom of the screen to have an SMS message sent to the new number to verify it belongs to you.

First, you need to backup your entire chat archive on the old phone. On Android, this is done via Google Drive. On iPhone, it is backed up to iCloud. Head to Settings—>Chats—>Chat Backup and tap Back Up.

Now on the new phone, install WhatsApp, and when it asks you for a mobile number, enter it. It will also invite you to restore a previous backup, and eventually, your messaging history will appear. Just follow the on-screen prompts. On Android, make sure you’re already logged into the Google account where your backup is stored. On iPhone, make sure you’re already logged into the iCloud account where the backup is stored.

How to check if your phone number is blocked

When setting up WhatsApp on your phone, you may receive a message telling you that WhatsApp has blocked your number. WhatsApp says they block any numbers which violate their terms of service. This can include sending spam, adding an excessive number of people to groups, creating too many groups (although they don’t say how many you’re allowed in total), and various other unspecified behaviors that the system may flag.

FAQs

Only if someone has added you to their WhatsApp contact list. The person needs your phone number to do this, which you would have to give them. Once they have added you to WhatsApp, your phone number will appear along with your name.

There is no unique WhatsApp-assigned number. Only your mobile phone number is used on WhatsApp.

No, this is currently not possible.

Install WhatsApp, and when it prompts you to enter a mobile number, put in the number you think may be already connected to an account. If the phone number is being used with a WhatsApp account, it will tell you.

You can’t. However, since they need your number to start messaging you on WhatsApp, they already have it. So why bother hiding it?

How do I create a WhatsApp number?

Can you get a phone number through WhatsApp?