YouTube has begun to inform all users who have a channel (that is, all those who have uploaded at least one video to the platform), that in the coming weeks it will adopt a username system, with the format of identifiers (yes, the increasingly ubiquitous one on the Internet, with an @ followed by the unique alphanumeric string that identifies the user). A change that, in truth, makes so much sense I don’t understand how it hasn’t happened beforeWell, as I said, it is a system that we can almost consider as universal on the Internet.
To initiate this change, the Google service has sent an email to all users of the platform informing of this circumstance, although the change has not yet started, although the process is not going to take too long. As we can read in said message, the choice of name option will be activated progressively over the next few weeks. It is not specified, however, the order system that will be used to choose which accounts will be able to choose their identifier first.
Be that as it may, in the same communication it is indicated that «Starting November 14, 2022, if you haven’t selected a username for your channel, YouTube will automatically assign you one, which you can change in YouTube Studio if you want.«. Therefore, we can extrapolate that in a maximum of six weeks from nowthe vast majority of users should already be able to choose their custom username.
Another important detail is that users who already have a custom channel URL will get that name as their default identifier. but, if they wish, they can change it. This, of course, invites us to think that creators will be able to differentiate the name of the channel from their own username, thus segregating, if they wish, their activities as content creators and as YouTube users.
These are the requirements set by YouTube for the creation of the identifiers:
- Be between 3 and 30 characters
- Be composed of alphanumeric characters (AZ, az, 1-9)
- You can include underscores (_), hyphens (-), and periods (.)
- Not look like a URL or phone number
- Not currently in use
- Follow the YouTube Community Guidelines
Additionally, two reasons are indicated why the choice of a username could be rejected by YouTube:
- Violent, offensive, sexualized or inappropriate user names
- The sale and transfer of usernames
Additionally, and for users who have never uploaded a video to YouTube, when they do so for the first time, the platform will automatically assign them an identifier, but they will be offered the possibility of modifying it if they wish. However, we can expect the same thing to happen as with the rest of the mass-use services on the Internet, that is, to obtain an original username, without having to resort to putting several numbers to its right, decreases substantially after the first few weeks of this feature. So, if you are going to use it, it is best to be very attentive in the coming weeks, to request yours as soon as possible.
