YouTube Introduces Handles Like Other Social Media, Plans to Launch in November

YouTube, an American online video-sharing and social media platform will be introducing handles for members of its community by 14 November 2022.

For a long time, most popular social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram and TikTok have allowed users to create unique handles to identify themselves differently. And now YouTube has finally decided to jump on the trend by allowing its community of users to create unique handles to replace its custom URL.

The new handle feature is YouTube’s way of allowing its users to find and connect with its community of users. Handles will be unique to each creator, unlike channel names, making it easier for creators to establish a distinct presence on YouTube.

According to YouTube, this will make it easier to mention other users in comments, community posts, and descriptions. Giving shout-outs to co-creators will be made easy with the handles.

The new YouTube handles will first be available to creators with personalized URL in the coming weeks before it becomes automatically available to all YouTubers in November, each creator will receive personal emails and notification in the YouTube studio when the feature is available to be used.

For every creator with a personalized URL for their channel, there is a reserved handle, however, if a creator wants a different handle, the creator can decide to change it.

YouTube is now cancelling the “100 subscribers before you get a personalized URL” requirement. Regardless of having a personalized URL or not, it is possible to choose a unique handle for your channel.

Your new handle will become part of your channel URL; the personalized URL will become your handle, i.e. if your handle is @InvestorsKing, your channel URL will be https://youtube.com/@InvestorsKing, which can be used to direct people to your channel when they are not on YouTube, just like your Twitter, Instagram and TikTok handles.

The new YouTube handle allows you to be identified differently from every other creators on YouTube, all your social accounts can have a uniform handle, and other community members can tag you in video and lets others find you on YouTube easily.