YouTube has had a long-standing problem of fake accounts that spread spam and misinformation. These accounts often impersonate popular YouTubers and scam people into giving away their personal information. YouTube has actively tried to remove these accounts, but now it has come up with a handy new solution.
The video-sharing platform has introduced “handles” to the platform, similar to other social apps like Twitter, Discord, and dozens of others. These handles are essentially name tags that will be unique to a YouTuber, so they can be correctly identified among others.
For instance, popular creator PewDiePie could select “@pewdiepie” as his handle, and it would be unique to him, the same way it works on Twitter.
Other than identification and branding, handles will also help with mentions in comments, community posts, and video descriptions.
The new update has not rolled out yet, but YouTube says that creators will be notified “over the next month” when they choose a handle. Channels that already have a personalized URL will automatically have it as their default handle, but they can opt to change it as soon as the notification comes through in YouTube Studio.
The company has clarified that handle selection will be based on a few factors such as “overall YouTube presence, subscriber count, and whether the channel is active or inactive.”
Additionally, a matching URL will also be created with these handles (youtube.com/@[handle]). You can read more details about the feature on YouTube’s FAQ page.