Keep your phone number private with Signal usernames
Randall Sarafa on 20 Feb 2024
“Signal’s mission and sole focus is private communication. For years, Signal has kept your messages private, your profile information (like your name and profile photo) private, your contacts private, and your groups private – among much else. Now we’re taking that one step further, by making your phone number on Signal more private.
Here’s how:
New default: Your phone number will no longer be visible to everyone in Signal
If you use Signal, your phone number will no longer be visible to everyone you chat with by default. People who have your number saved in their phone’s contacts will still see your phone number since they already know it.
Connect without sharing your phone number
If you don’t want to hand out your phone number to chat with someone on Signal, you can now create a unique username that you can use instead (you will still need a phone number to sign up for Signal). Note that a username is not the profile name that’s displayed in chats, it’s not a permanent handle, and not visible to the people you are chatting with in Signal. A username is simply a way to initiate contact on Signal without sharing your phone number.
Control who can find you on Signal by phone number
If you don’t want people to be able to find you by searching for your phone number on Signal, you can now enable a new, optional privacy setting. This means that unless people have your exact unique username, they won’t be able to start a conversation, or even know that you have a Signal account – even if they have your phone number.
Right now, these options are in beta, and will be rolling out to everyone in the coming weeks.
Note that even once these features reach everyone, both you and the people you are chatting with on Signal will need to be using the most updated version of the app to take advantage of them.
Importantly, all of this is optional. While we changed the default to hide your phone number from people who don’t have it saved in their phone’s contacts, you can change this setting. You are not required to create a username and you have full control over whether you want people to be able to find you by your phone number or not. Whatever choices work for you and your friends, you’ll still be able to communicate with your connections in Signal, past and present.
Once these features roll out, your phone number will no longer be visible in Signal to anyone running the latest version of Signal who doesn’t already have it saved in their phone’s contacts. This means that when you participate in group chats, message people 1-1, and make Signal calls, your phone number won’t show up unless the person has it saved (you can also limit this further, as detailed below). Your Signal profile name and photo will continue to be visible.
If you’d still like everyone to see your phone number when messaging them, you can change the default by going to Settings > Privacy > Phone Number > Who can see my number. You can either choose to have your phone number visible to “Everyone” you message on Signal or “Nobody.” If you select “Nobody,” the only people who will see your phone number in Signal are people who already have it saved to their phone’s contacts.
Changing your phone number privacy settings by going to Settings > Privacy > Phone number will change whether they see your phone number in your profile.
We’re also introducing a setting that lets you control who can find you by your phone number on Signal. Up until today, anyone who had your phone number–from a party flier, a business card, or somewhere else–could look you up on Signal by phone number and message you. You can now restrict this by going to Settings > Privacy > Phone Number > Who can find me by my number and setting it to “Nobody.”