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Claiming the username

The username is the public @name of your official WhatsApp Business line. It is a new way for customers to reach you without needing your phone number — the number is still displayed on your profile. This guide shows how to claim the username directly in the WhatsApp Manager, using the administrator account of your business portfolio (Business Manager) on Meta.
The same operation can be done through the Positus API, including reading, setting, deleting and getting username suggestions. See Official line username.

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Prerequisites

  • Access to the Facebook account with a BM administrator user (business portfolio on Meta).
  • The WhatsApp Business API number already active inside the WhatsApp account (WABA).

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Step by step

1

Access the business portfolio

Log in to Facebook with the BM administrator user (business portfolio on Meta).
2

Open the WhatsApp Accounts menu

Access the WHATSAPP ACCOUNTS menu through this link: business.facebook.com/latest/settings/whatsapp_account
3

Open the WhatsApp Manager

Click on the WhatsApp account that holds the number and then on WHATSAPP MANAGER.

WhatsApp Manager button on the WhatsApp account screen

4

Create the username

Click on the desired number, open the PROFILE tab and, under Username, click CREATE.

Profile tab of the number with the Create option under Username

5

Fill in and save

Type the desired name and click SAVE. Meta also displays suggestions of available names.

Username creation window with suggestions and the Save button

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Important notes

  • Each number can have only one username.
  • It is not possible to have more than one number with the same username.

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Username format

Business usernames must follow the format below:
  • May contain only English alphabet letters (a-z), digits (0-9), period (.) and underscore (_);
  • Characters that are not English alphabet letters (such as ñ, é, ü) are not supported and will cause the request to fail;
  • Must be between 3 and 35 characters;
  • Must contain at least one English alphabet letter (a-z, A-Z);
  • Cannot start or end with a period, nor contain two consecutive periods (..);
  • Cannot start with www;
  • Cannot end with a domain (for example .com, .org, .net, .int, .edu, .gov, .mil, .us, .in, .html and so on);
  • Usernames are compared case-insensitively.

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After saving

Username propagation is asynchronous. Meta may first reserve (reserved) the name and only then promote it to approved (approved), when it becomes visible to customers on WhatsApp.
Positus notifies your webhook on every username status change — including changes made through the WhatsApp Manager, as in this guide. The event is business_username_update; see Line username update.

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Common issues

The full list of error codes returned by Meta is available in Official line username — Error handling.