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Alright lets talk about Phone Numbers Phone numbers were used to call somebody or get a call from somebody. That was basically it. Then after some time, they became more than that. Now you give your number at a supermarket checkout. You give your number at a restaurant just to check the menu.

You give your number to a delivery app. A shopping app. Some loyalty program. You use your number to sign up on some random app on a typical Friday and probably never open it again. And most of the time, you are not giving your number because you want these people to message you.

You are just trying to sign up. Or verify yourself. Or order something. Or just see the damn menu. But the funny part is, the same phone number is also your identity on messaging apps.

So the number you casually give somewhere just to use a service is also the same thing someone can use to reach your personal inbox. That is where it gets weird. You are basically saying: “Here is my number so I can use your service.” But somehow that can also mean:

Here is a direct way to message me.” Those are not the same thing. And only god knows how many of your contacts gave contact permission to random apps. Your number is sitting in your friends’ phones. Family phones. Coworkers’ phones. Old classmates.

People you probably forgot even had your number. And every other app is asking them: “Allow access to contacts?” They tap allow. Now think about this. The same number sitting everywhere is also the number tied to your messaging identity. Congrats. You created one identity for everything.

Some business you do not even remember giving your number to. People you never decided you wanted to talk to. Congrats. You unlocked endless spam. But spam is not even the real problem. The real problem is this:

knowing your identity became the same thing as having permission to contact you. Know the phone number? Message them. Know the username? DM them. Why? Why does knowing one identifier automatically mean you should get access to someone’s inbox? That part never made sense.

Identity and permission should be two different things. Of course, we cannot really fix phone numbers now. They are everywhere. Everyone uses them. Fine. But messaging does not have to use them. That is the idea behind Wave. A private place for the people you actually want to talk to.