YouTube Is Introducing Handles, With Unique Human-Readable URLs for Every Channel
variety.comTodd Spangler NY Digital Editor YouTube is finally going to give @uniquenames — that are comprehensible to human beings — to every single channel on the platform.
On Monday, the video giant announced that it is introducing handles, which it described as “a new way for people to easily find and engage with creators and each other on YouTube.” The YouTube handles will appear on channel pages and Shorts, which will make it “simpler and faster to mention each other in comments, community posts, video descriptions and more,” the service explained.
For every existing channel — YouTube says there are billions — the platform will create a matching URL (i.e., youtube.com/@handle) that will direct visitors to the channel page.
Previously, only creators with 100 or more subscribers were eligible for a custom URL. For everyone else, the URL for their YouTube channel has been a hashed unique ID, comprising a random string of alphanumeric characters.
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