Google has recently announced a change that will impact anyone who uses its social media platform YouTube. Our latest article will have a look at what exactly this change is, why it may be occurring, and all the important details you need to know.
The change involves the account name. Soon (and just like Twitter,) everyone will soon be required to have a ‘handle.’ This is something where a little ‘@’ symbol is displayed (e.g. @infrontdigital.) This handle will be unique to every person that owns an account and it will appear across the entire platform for everyone to see and engage with. An email is in the process of being sent to everyone that possesses an account to tell them of this change and select a handle as soon as possible.
As often happens with changes on this scale, roll out will be slow, and it will not impact everyone at first or everyone at the same time. If you have not had an email yet, look out for it as you will be due to get it in the course of time. In case you really want to see what this email says, the below is something that people have received on this subject:
“We’re writing to let you know that over the coming weeks YouTube will be introducing handles to make it easier for members of the community to find and connect with each other,” Your handle will be unique to your channel and will be how people mention you in comments, community posts and more.”
We understand that as to when you get this email, it will depend on several factors such as your usage on the platform, how many followers you have, and even your level of interaction across the site platform.
If you have a personalised URL for your site, it is likely that Google will (or will be about to) adopt this for you as your handle. If you don’t like the handle you have been given you also have the option to change it. However, people are being warned to expect disappointment, as not every handle will be available, and there is always the problem that someone may get their first and choose the one you want. Established sites should get first refusal on naming choices and this in part also explains the idea behind the phased roll out.
Why is this being done?
One theory is that it will be an effective security measure. Currently many different YouTube channels can have the same name. This can make it hard to distinguish which is legit or the official version. Once this change has been fully implemented, only one such handle will be allowed per account, and it will be unique to that particular channel. This potentially solves this problem very well, and makes it much easier for users to identify which is authentic and which is an imposter – a problem which currently occurs rather regularly on YouTube.
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