Following in the footsteps of social media giants like Twitter and Instagram, video sharing platform YouTube is releasing handles for users’ channels.
This news was announced yesterday on YouTube’s official blog. The blog explained that handles are being introduced to provide a way for users to more easily search for and engage with others on the platform.
As explained by YouTube, every user’s channel will have a unique handle attributed to it, like with Twitter and Instagram accounts, with this taking the form of @handlenamehere.
These handles will be visible on a channel’s page and on Shorts – YouTube’s own TikTok-style short-form video offering. YouTube has explained that these handles will also make it easier and quicker to mention others in comments, posts, descriptions for videos and much more.
Handles are, in effect, usernames, and they may sound similar to the existing channel names. However, the key difference between handles and channel names are that handles are entirely unique to an individual user, whereas channel names can be the same as others.
YouTube will be gradually rolling out handles and notifying users via YouTube Studio as to when they can choose their own handle name. For the most part, if a channel already has a personalised URL, this will automatically be selected as their handle, though they can change this when they receive the notification from YouTube. Once a handle is selected, this will be applied to the channel’s URL as well – so a URL will be youtube.com/@handlenamehere.
Handles will provide a way for businesses and creators to solidify their brand presences and create unity across social media platforms with consistent handle names, making it easier for people to find them.
The power of video content online is vast, and businesses that take advantage of this medium should ensure they have a YouTube channel that they also post their videos onto, as this is an easy and free way to get brand exposure.
If you’d like to have a chat about video content or simply establishing your presence online, speak to our team here at Engage Web today.
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