India, July 2 -- The Centre has issued a notice to Meta over the rollout of WhatsApp's new username feature in India, directing the company to submit a detailed explanation within three days and refrain from introducing the feature until consultations with the government are completed.

According to sources, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) took note of WhatsApp's public announcement regarding the phased global rollout of the username feature, which also includes India.

Under the new feature, users will have the option to create a unique username, allowing first-time contacts to communicate without seeing their phone numbers. WhatsApp has said the username will serve as an additional privacy control for user...