WhatsApp is rolling out usernames for people who want to chat with businesses without sharing their phone number. When this happens, a WhatsApp contact in Super Chat may show a username, or may not show a phone number at all.
Super Chat supports receiving and replying to BSUID-only WhatsApp conversations. Your team can continue receiving and replying to WhatsApp messages even when WhatsApp does not share the customer’s phone number.
What this means for your team
For agents, day-to-day work stays the same. New WhatsApp conversations continue to arrive in Super Chat, and agents can reply from the conversation as usual.
The only visible difference is that some contacts may not have a phone number. If WhatsApp provides a username, Super Chat can show that username on the contact. If the customer had older conversations with your team using a phone number, those conversations may appear under Previous Conversations.
What is a BSUID?
BSUID stands for Business-Scoped User ID. It is the WhatsApp identity that lets a business keep messaging a customer when their phone number is not available.
When replying from the Super Chat dashboard, agents do not need to copy, store, or manage BSUIDs manually. Super Chat uses the active WhatsApp identity associated with the conversation.
How replies work
Super Chat replies using the active WhatsApp identity on the conversation.
If WhatsApp provides a phone number, Super Chat can use it. If WhatsApp does not provide a phone number, Super Chat uses the BSUID provided by your WhatsApp provider. This keeps the current conversation replyable while preserving older conversation history.
Meta Cloud WhatsApp inboxes
For Meta Cloud WhatsApp inboxes, Super Chat supports contacts who only have a BSUID. Agents can receive and reply to these conversations from Super Chat.
Supported WhatsApp message types can continue to work with BSUID-only contacts, including normal replies, supported templates, interactive messages, and attachments.
Twilio WhatsApp inboxes
For Twilio WhatsApp inboxes, Super Chat supports the WhatsApp identity information sent by Twilio, including BSUID information when it is available on the Twilio account.
Twilio support can depend on Twilio’s own WhatsApp capabilities and rollout status. If a message does not deliver, check the exact Twilio delivery status or provider error.
Asking for a customer’s phone number
When available for your inbox, Super Chat lets agents ask a BSUID-only WhatsApp contact to share their phone number.
The customer controls whether they share it. If they share their number, Super Chat updates the contact when the response safely matches the current WhatsApp conversation. If the shared number appears to belong to another contact, Super Chat marks it for review instead of merging it automatically.
Using custom integrations and the API
When sending another message in an existing conversation, use that conversation’s message endpoint. Super Chat sends through the WhatsApp identity already associated with the conversation.
When creating a conversation through the API, source_id selects the contact’s messaging identity within the inbox. A contact may have both a phone-number identity and one or more BSUID identities. These should not be treated as interchangeable.
Selecting a different identity can create a separate conversation, even when Lock to single conversation is enabled. That setting reuses conversations within the selected identity; it does not combine conversations across identities.
Avoid choosing the first or last entry in contact_inboxes without checking its identity and inbox. To continue an existing exchange, retain its conversation ID rather than creating another conversation using a different source_id.
Existing conversations are not automatically merged when another identity is used.