If WhatsApp stops using phone numbers as IDs - what happens to WA_ID in ManyChat?

As of now, Manychat still treats WhatsApp ID as the contact’s phone number, and its current docs still describe it that way.

So if you’re building flows today, I wouldn’t change anything yet.

If WhatsApp rolls out usernames more broadly later, I’d expect Manychat to clarify how that affects WA_ID, but I haven’t seen anything official from Manychat saying that WA_ID is changing already.

If you want to be safe, I’d do this:

• keep using WhatsApp ID for your current flows

• if you specifically need the phone number long-term, also save it into a separate Phone/Text field when you collect it

That way, if Meta/WhatsApp changes how identifiers work later, you’re not relying on only one field.

Thank you for chiming in here ​@Devtrest! Helpful tips 🙌

At least for now, ManyChat still treats WA_ID as the contact’s WhatsApp phone number. Their own system fields doc literally describes WhatsApp ID as the field that stores the phone number used for WhatsApp, and their WhatsApp import docs also tell you to use WhatsApp ID when you want to work with that number inside automations.

So I wouldn’t assume it has changed yet.

What I’d do is:

• keep using WA_ID for your current flows

• avoid building anything that depends on a future username change until Meta/ManyChat officially changes the docs

• if your setup really needs the phone number long-term, also save it into your own custom field as a backup

Right now, I’m not seeing anything official from ManyChat saying that WA_ID has already stopped being the phone number.