YouTube Handle – A Unique Name for Each Channel
YouTube has announced a new option called Handle. The idea behind this option is to help YouTube users find and communicate with authors more easily, by allowing each YouTube channel to have, in addition to the channel name, which does not have to be unique, although there is an option to pay and get a unique name, to have an additional a name that must be unique.
Handle will appear on the channel page next to the channel name, in YouTube Shorts, and in the channel URL. If you mention a creator in the comment, you will be able to reference him using the Handle, which will automatically become a link to the mentioned creator’s channel.
All YouTube users will have their own Handle. These options will be slowly introduced over the next few months, but the channels with the most subscribers will get it first, and the inactive channels last.
Channels that have a unique channel name will automatically receive a Handle that is the same as the channel name, while others will receive a randomly chosen name. You will be able to change Handle name whenever you want and an unlimited number of times, but the name you choose must be unique. Also, the maximum number of characters is 30, and letters, numbers, and punctuation marks can be used.
When you select the Handle you want to use, you will also automatically receive a unique URL, for example, www.youtube.com/@your_handle. If the channel already has a personalized URL, you will not need to update the links that use that URL, because all visitors will automatically be redirected to the new URL that contains the Handle name.
With this, YouTube wants to help creators stand out and users to find the desired creator more easily, which we certainly welcome. Most of us know how inconvenient it is when you want to find a certain channel, but in the search results, you only get the wrong channels that have the same name as the channel you are looking for. If they would only fix the algorithm that favors the channels of big corporations, that would really help the creators who need help the most.