YouTube Brings Support For Tagging Other Accounts in Video Descriptions and Comments

YouTube launched new support (photo: YouTube blog)

JAKARTA - Google announced a new way to easily find and interact with content creators or with each other's viewers on YouTube.

This is done because Google realizes that for a YouTube content creator, YouTube is not only a place to upload videos, but also a home for their community.

"Each channel will have a unique handle, making it easier for fans to find content and interact with creators they love," Google said in an announcement shared on the YouTube blog Monday, October 10.

announcing YouTube handles: a unique identifier to help people more easily discover & connect with you & your channel.

your existing channel URLs, names, etc will continue to work & we’ll notify you when you can choose your handle.

subscribe for updates➡️https://t.co/twEEoqizNq pic.twitter.com/M80RWMa5Bz

— TeamYouTube (@TeamYouTube) October 10, 2022

The new feature, called Handle, is a new way for content creators to identify their channel in the @username format to interact with their audience on YouTube Shorts, channel pages, video descriptions, and comments.

"For example, content creators can tag someone in a mention in a comment or be tagged in the title of a recent collaboration, helping them increase their visibility and reach with new audiences," explains the company.

The way Handle works may be similar to tagging (@username) on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and so on. When a viewer taps on a mention, the mentioned creator's info panel will appear. The panel shares info about the channel, including their description and recent videos.

However, YouTube only offers limited support for the format. If on many social media, when your name is mentioned, then the content of the person who mentioned you will be visible in the feeds of your friends, followers or fans. But on YouTube, that content won't appear to your viewers.

In addition, if you want to tag someone in the comments column, you can't tag them directly in a new comment, you can only tag your friends by replying to other people's comments first.

Handle will start rolling out gradually starting next week. To protect creators from getting their channel name stolen, YouTube notes that channels that already have a personalized URL will see it as their default Handle unless they choose to change it.