WhatsApp has started rolling out a new feature that allows users to hide their phone numbers in communities on iOS and Android platforms. WhatsApp has been testing the new feature for communities for a while, which will add an extra layer of privacy to your account when joining a community.
This feature, called phone number privacy, prevents your phone number from being visible to other members of the community. Users are shown a warning that their phone number is only visible to community administrators and others who add them to their contacts. This feature hides your phone number so not all other participants in conversations can see your full phone number. Note that this feature is limited to community members and the community manager can always see your phone number.
The new phone number hiding feature for communities is currently available in beta versions for Android and iOS.