YouTube is not just a place to put comments on videos but a platform that has grown a community of creators and their fans. There are billions of users watching YouTube every day and now it is time to help the viewers find more creators easily. The platform has announced supporting the @username format just like Instagram, Twitter, and other social media formats. The community and a home base for many will be more user-friendly with the introduction of handles.
These new handles will be appearing on the YouTube Videos and Shorts as well. This feature will make it easier for the users to mention each other through comments, in videos as well as in locations. YouTube said in a blog, “We want to ensure creators can craft an identity as unique as their content while giving viewers the confidence that they are interacting with their favorite creators.” These handles will join channel names as a different method of identifying YouTube channels however each handle will be unique to each channel. This will help creators to establish their distinctive presence on the platform.
Launching Soon!
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In the coming month, YouTube will notify the creators on the platform and they will able to choose a particular handle to represent their channel and as an individual creator as well. For the channels that have a personalized URL, the new feature will automatically become their default handle. YouTube is gradually rolling out this feature to offer ample time of making each handle unique and easy to discover. Soon, every channel on YouTube will have to have a @username or handle.
Special Features
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A YouTube channel’s overall presence over the platform along with subscriber count, channel activity, and other aspects will be noticed in the handle selection process. Once a creator on the platform chooses a handle, YouTube will create a matching URL for them which can be utilized to direct people from other platforms to YouTube such as youtube.com/@handle. There is no need to update links when the channel already has a personalized URL.
Offering a more unified presence, this feature of the handle is going to increase the visibility of the channels as well as the creators on the platform. YouTube said that handles will make the channels, “instantly and consistently recognizable”. However, the handles will not replace the channel name itself.
