> my point was that other messengers have public usernames too, mostly their phone number and suffer from that same problem.
the difference is important. the thing that is happening with telegram is the expected behavior, you are supposed to be able to add random online users with their username to groups and contact them, that is also the point for a username so you don't have to share you phone number.
with whatsapp your phone number is not supposed to be shared with random strangers, and sure if somebody has your private mobile phone number he can spam you but that is not supposed to happen, and i imagine that whatsapp blocks that behavior if you try to do in for multiple users. with telegram i saw groups with 50k members added this way because there is a api for this, but there is no api for whatsapp and i think they block you after x tries or reports. the problem is much bigger with telegram.
the difference is important. the thing that is happening with telegram is the expected behavior, you are supposed to be able to add random online users with their username to groups and contact them, that is also the point for a username so you don't have to share you phone number.
with whatsapp your phone number is not supposed to be shared with random strangers, and sure if somebody has your private mobile phone number he can spam you but that is not supposed to happen, and i imagine that whatsapp blocks that behavior if you try to do in for multiple users. with telegram i saw groups with 50k members added this way because there is a api for this, but there is no api for whatsapp and i think they block you after x tries or reports. the problem is much bigger with telegram.