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YouTube’s latest new feature is a game changer for both users and creators
YouTube has just announced it has added handles to its service, a new way for users to find their favorite creators. The new feature will be available in addition to channel names as another way to identify a YouTube channel, although the former will be truly unique.
According to YouTube, all channels will eventually have their own unique handles, which will be chosen by channel owners. The company announced it will notify creators when they can choose a handle for their channel, over the next month.
Once YouTube implements the new feature, all handles will appear on channel pages and Shorts to make them more recognizable. In addition, the implementation of handles will make it simpler and faster to mention each other in comments, community posts, video descriptions, and other similar places.
Things like shouting out a creator in a mention in comments or tagging in the title of recent collaboration will be possible after handles becomes widely available. It should also help creators increase visibility and reach with new audiences.
YouTube announced that if a channel already has a personalized URL, then this will become the default handle. However, creators will be allowed to change the handle for their channel as soon as the notification in YouTube Studio comes through.
Since these handles must be unique, YouTube will be rolling these out gradually, which means not everyone will be notified about choosing their handle at the same time. YouTube also confirmed that the timing of when a creator will be allowed to choose their own handle depends on multiple factors, including overall YouTube presence, subscriber count and whether the channel is active or inactive.
Once a creator chooses their own handle, YouTube will create a matching URL (youtube.com/@handle), which should allow creators to direct users to their content from outside the YouTube app. Keep in mind that if a channel already has a personalized URL, you won’t have to update links since they’ll automatically redirect to the new URL that also contains your handle.
