In the coming weeks, YouTube will notify channels when they may switch their URL.
YouTube is moving towards more standard social networking by providing @handles for channels, which will make it simpler to drive traffic to your profile and promote your channel in the app.
According to YouTube:
“Handles are a brand-new unique identifier (for example, @youtubecreators) and every YouTube channel will have one. Handles make it easy for individuals to locate and communicate with you and your YouTube channel in addition to providing a unique name (unlike channel names). Because handles are unique (unlike channel names), it is easy to identify if you are interacting with the correct person or not.”
As you can see in the above line of code, your handle, which will be unique to your channel (unlike Channel names), will directly connect people to your content, like as Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, and so on.
When you create a channel, you’ll also be able to use your handle as a unique channel URL, providing another branding opportunity. Until now, only YouTube creators with 100 subscribers were able to create custom channel URLs, but now the feature is available to all users in the app.
In the given example, @handles makes it easier and faster to reference channels in comments, community posts, and video descriptions.
“To illustrate the point, a shout-out in a comment or a tag in a collaboration post can help a creator gain visibility and appeal to new audiences.”
The aim is to promote channels in line with consumer trends, maximizing shorts channel growth by making it easier to follow creators.
YouTube hopes to tackle another aspect of its business that has grown in recent years is the rise of copycat channels, in which scammers set up channels that mimic popular YouTubers using the same channel name.
To provide more transparency and prevent the influence of this approach, in June YouTube announced that channels would no longer be permitted to conceal subscriber counts, and that special characters would no longer be permitted in channel names, another approach scammers utilize.
If a channel has a special handle that is unique for each channel, that makes it more difficult to create replica channels and con users with uploads and scams, and that handle can be used to promote directly.
The good news is that this update is nice. The bad news is that you should hurry up and get your unique YouTube to handle if you want to keep using this feature.
“On November 14th, we will open up all YouTube channels to choose a unique @handle. If you do not choose one by then, we will begin assigning handles automatically based on your channel name (which you can change).”
It is feasible to modify your current handle, but if you do nothing, YouTube will do so from November 14th.
Your YouTube handle will become your URL unless you already have a custom URL for your channel. All previous URLs for your YouTube presence will automatically redirect to your new channel name.
Next few weeks, YouTube will notify channels when they can update their URL.
