Here’s how you keep your WhatsApp number from turning up on Google Search

WhatsApp’s Click to Chat feature lets users create URL links or QR codes that others can use to connect with them on WhatsApp without actually needing their phone numbers or having them on their contact list.

While this is a very convenient feature, especially for those people who use WhatsApp for a lot of business communications, the flipside is that it makes your number public and can be searched up by anyone on Google.

There has been some debate about whether this is something intentional WhatsApp has done or if it’s a bug. But what Google’s algorithm does is that it pulls the phone number from the Click to Chat link’s metadata, which then gets saved on the Google Search Index.