The video-sharing app YouTube introduced a new way for users to find and engage through channel handles. According to YouTube's News and Events Page, the channels can use unique identifiers with the @username format. This is similar to the handles and usernames commonly used on other social media sites.
These handles will be visible in comments, community posts, video descriptions and on channel pages allowing users to quickly tag users.
Handles are expected to be rolled out over the next month and creators will be informed when they can choose their handle. For channels that have a personalised URL, it will by default become the handle.
Earlier this year YouTube began allowing content creators to change both the name and URL of their channels, which gave them an opportunity to help channels identify and distinguish themselves. Now the content creators can further distinguish themselves through the handle names.
Prior to this update, YouTube had limited support for the use of this format. Users could only use it to mention others on Live chats or creators could use the @ format to mention channels and video titles. But the users could only tag another user by replying to their comments.
YouTube is using this feature to compete with TikTok as it offers the ability for users to engage in conversations through posts and the resulting discussions and results.
