Handles overview

Handles are a way for you to find and connect with creators on YouTube. Handles are unique and short channel identifiers distinct from channel names, and they start with the “@” symbol. For example, @youtubecreators.

All channels will have an associated handle that can be used to find and interact with other users– both creators and viewers. Your handle will also automatically become the new YouTube URL for your channel that will make it easy for people to discover you. For example, youtube.com/@youtubecreators. You can use this URL to direct people to your channel when they’re not on YouTube. Each channel can only have one handle.

You’ll see handles in places like comments, mentions, and in Shorts. Your handle will show in more places over time. You can also use your handle outside of YouTube to promote your channel.

Any legacy personalized URLs that you have will continue to work.

Handles on YouTube

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Handle naming guidelines

Note: YouTube reserves the right to change, reclaim, or remove a handle at any time.

Your handle must follow these guidelines:

• Is between 3-30 characters (see exceptions below)
• Uses alphabet letters or numbers from one of our 75 supported languages
  • Your handle can also include: underscores (_), hyphens (-), periods (.), Latin middle dots (·).
  • Mixed scripts are only allowed in certain circumstances. Left-to-right scripts cannot be mixed with right-to-left scripts in a single handle except when numbers are added to the end of the handle.
• Is not URL-like or phone number-like
• Is not already being used
• Follows YouTube's Community Guidelines

Exceptions to the handle character limit:

• Han/Hangul: 1-10 characters
• Ethiopic/Hiragana/Katakana: 2-20 characters
• Mixed script handles may have different minimum and maximum limits

Exceptions on usage of underscores (_), hyphens (-), periods (.), and Latin middle dots (·):

• Separators - underscores (_), hyphens (-), periods (.), and Latin middle dots (·) - are not allowed at the beginning or end of a handle

Best practices for choosing a handle

Select a handle that best represents your public identity on YouTube. Note that handles aren’t case-sensitive.

We don’t allow:

• Violent, offensive, sexualized, or spammy handles
• The sale and transfer of handles

If your handle is found to violate our Community Guidelines, YouTube will revoke the handle and generate a new one for your channel.

Note: In certain instances, like when you create a channel through methods like posting a comment on mobile, YouTube may auto assign you a handle based on your chosen channel name. There may be cases where your handle is randomly assigned if the chosen channel name cannot be converted to the handle. You can always view and edit the handle in Studio or by going to youtube.com/handle.

Considerations when choosing handles in some languages

If your handle includes characters other than the letters A-Z, numbers 0-9, or separators [_-.], there are 2 potential considerations:

• People searching for you: People may not be able to easily type your handle to search for you if they do not have the relevant keyboard for your handle.
• Sharing links on apps and websites outside of YouTube: Some apps and websites outside of YouTube may not properly display or support your youtube.com/@myHandle link, making it appear broken or preventing it from directing to your channel page. This is because internationalization is not uniformly supported across apps and websites on the internet. These issues can occur with both typed links and copied links from the YouTube app or website.

Hide your handle

If you want to hide your handle, you can delete or hide your channel.

Search using handles

Viewers and creators can search for your channel directly on YouTube using the @ symbol followed by your handle. Handles can be copied on the channel page or profile card.

Share using a handle URL

A handle URL is a YouTube URL that includes an @ symbol followed by a channel’s handle. You can share a channel page using the handle URL by:

• Clicking or tapping Share .

Or

• Copying and pasting the URL directly from your browser's address bar.

Handle URLs in some languages

If your handle includes characters other than the letters A-Z, numbers 0-9, or separators [_-.], the following applies:

• The handle URL will be copied from the browser in an encoded form in accordance with internet standards. The encoding ensures the URL will work correctly.
  • Example of encoded URL:
    https://www.youtube.com/c/Handle%EC%A7%81%ED%95%A8.
• When sharing to external apps using Share , the channel page may be shared using the channel ID URL (instead of the handle URL).
  • Example of channel ID URL:
    https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0L1uV8pgO4pCAIBNGxxy5w.

View or change handle

Note: You can change your handle twice within a 14-day period. If you do so, we hold your previous handle for 14 days in case you’d like to switch back. During this 14-day period, your former handle URL and your updated URL will both work. Afterward, the handle will become available for other users to select as their handle.

1. Sign in to YouTube Studio.
2. From the left Menu, select Customization   Profile.
3. Under Handle, you can view or change your handle URL.
4. ​If you change your handle, click PUBLISH to confirm it.

If your preferred handle isn’t available, you can try adding periods, numbers, or underscores.

If your preferred handle isn’t available, it’s usually because:

• Another channel already selected that handle.

Or

• It didn’t meet our handle naming guidelines.

Supported languages

Handles are supported in the below languages.

Languages Supported

Afrikaans Albanian Amharic Arabic Armenian Assamese Azerbaijani Basque Belarusian Bengali (Bangla) Bosnian Bulgarian Burmese (Myanmar) Catalan Chinese (Traditional) Chinese (Simplified) Croatian Czech Danish Dutch English English (United Kingdom) English (India) Estonian Filipino Finnish French French (Canada) Galician Georgian German Greek Gujarati Hebrew Hindi Hungarian Icelandic Indonesian Italian Japanese Kannada Kazakh Khmer Korean Kyrgyz Lao Latvian

Lithuanian Macedonian Malayalam Malay Marathi Mongolian Nepali Norwegian Odia Persian Polish Portuguese Punjabi Romanian Russian Serbian (Latin) Sinhala Slovak Slovenian Spanish Spanish (Latin America) Swedish Swahili Tamil Telugu Thai Turkish Ukrainian Urdu Uzbek Vietnamese Zulu