Account handles are a common sight on Twitter and countless other social platforms, communications apps, and more. Now, YouTube plans to introduce the same for all YouTube creators as a means to create a new, non-alterable identifying ID. In a few weeks, you will be able to create unique YouTube account handles that you and your followers can use to refer to you.
YouTube handles will appear alongside the channel name. They will not usurp the position and importance of channel names and will instead offer additional means to identify and refer to a channel.
When will you get the YouTube Account Handle for your account?
Like every new feature rollout, you won’t get instant access to the YouTube account handling feature. It will begin in a phased manner, which means some regions will get it first while others will receive it a bit later. The official blog post also mentions that the timing of the access will depend on multiple factors. So, a fairly active creator with a big following might get it earlier than others. One more thing to note is that due to this style of rollout, easy-to-remember YouTube account handles might be grabbed by those favored by the selection process.
It doesn’t clarify whether all YouTube users can get an account handle or not. Remember that YouTube forces you to create a channel before you can start posting comments. If all the users get a unique handle, it would be easier for them to tag each other, but that would defeat the purpose of unique name handles.
The official blog post also doesn’t give a glimpse of how the YouTube account handle will appear on a creator’s channel or home page. There are just a bunch of unclear templates that showcase the handle’s positioning on what seems to be the channel home page or a short video. You must keep an eye out for YouTube’s notification about the account handle. Because someone might grab the account handle you have had your eyes on. YouTube clarified that if you already had a personalized URL, that old URL will automatically redirect to the new URL. So, you don’t need to update the old links.
