August 10, 2026. On August 7, HighLevel shipped support for WhatsApp usernames, so that when a customer who has adopted a username messages your business for the first time, HighLevel creates the contact from their username and business-scoped user ID rather than losing the lead. Capture is handled. What is not handled, and what HighLevel says so in its own FAQ, is everything you normally do next.
What HighLevel shipped
When a first-time inbound comes from a username adopter, WhatsApp does not give you their phone number. HighLevel stores a BSUID instead. A BSUID is a business-scoped user ID, unique to that customer for your account only. It is enough to reply on WhatsApp and keep the thread. It is not a phone number, and it cannot be turned into one.
The part that breaks automations
- HighLevel states you cannot start a new conversation with someone you only know by a username, because there is no way to resolve a username to a phone number or a BSUID. You can only reply after they contact you first.
- Usernames are not stable identifiers. HighLevel notes customers can change a username at any time, which is exactly why the BSUID, not the username, is what stays fixed for your account.
- Twilio's changelog on the same Meta change spells out the payload effect on another platform: when no phone number is present, the to, from and a new ExternalUserId field all carry the BSUID instead. It also notes that one-tap, zero-tap and copy-code authentication templates still require phone numbers and cannot use BSUIDs.
- Meta's contact book, which Twilio dates to early April 2026, stores phone and BSUID pairs from prior interactions, so an existing customer's phone number keeps arriving even after they adopt a username. The gap is specifically the brand-new inbound.
- HighLevel lists the current beta markets as Algeria, Azerbaijan, Ghana, Libya, Nepal, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Singapore, Malaysia and Peru, with more to follow as Meta expands.
What it means for operators
Think about what your intake workflow does the second a WhatsApp lead lands. In most builds it fires an SMS, queues a call task, or drops the contact into a dialer or a phone-keyed dedupe step. Every one of those branches assumes a phone number exists. For a BSUID-only contact it does not, so the branch does not error loudly, it simply does nothing useful. That is the expensive failure mode: a captured lead that no follow-up ever reaches.
The fix is small if you do it before volume arrives. Add a condition on empty phone number at the top of your WhatsApp intake and route those contacts to a WhatsApp reply path instead of SMS or voice, inside the session and template rules that already govern your other conversations. Store the BSUID in a custom field and treat it, not the username, as the key. Then check any automation that assumes an E.164 number, including reporting that counts leads by phone.
The timing is a gift. None of the named beta markets are the main English-speaking markets most of our clients sell into, so this is a workflow audit you can schedule rather than an incident you have to absorb. Teams running lead intake through HighLevel can fold it into a normal GoHighLevel build review, and it is worth doing at the same time as any wider lead generation audit, because the same empty-phone assumption tends to be hiding in forms, ad integrations and enrichment steps too.
One honest limit. The two sources describe the same Meta change from different vantage points and on different dates, so read each for what it claims: HighLevel describes its own integration and calls the feature in beta with Meta, rolling out region by region, while Twilio's entry is dated February 18, 2026 and says the username rollout starts in June 2026. Neither tells you when your market flips. If that date matters to your forecast, ask your provider in writing which markets are live for your account today.
Frequently Asked Questions
A business-scoped user ID. It is an identifier WhatsApp assigns to a customer for one specific business, so a company can keep messaging that customer when their phone number is hidden. It is scoped to your account and is not shared with other businesses.
No. HighLevel states there is no way to resolve a username to a phone number or a BSUID, so you cannot start an outbound conversation with someone you only know by username. You can reply once they message you, which is when the BSUID becomes available.
Only in one case. Phone numbers keep arriving for existing relationships, for customers who have saved your business, and for anyone who has not adopted a username. Twilio also notes Meta's contact book stores phone and BSUID pairs from prior interactions. The number is withheld mainly on a brand-new inbound from a username adopter.
Add a branch that checks for an empty phone number on WhatsApp intake and routes those contacts to a WhatsApp reply path rather than SMS or a call task. Store the BSUID in a custom field and key on it, not on the username, because HighLevel notes usernames can change at any time.