Usernames are a thing almost everywhere.  If you have an account on Twitter, Instagram, or TikTok, then you have a username. But YouTube has been a historical holdout -- at least, until now.

YouTube has announced that it's introducing usernames for users and channels. There will be @name handles used across the platform, making it easy to mention people and channels in descriptions and comments. It should also generally help with finding people and channels on YouTube.

Every user handle will be valid for both channels and Shorts, YouTube's TikTok competitor. Presumably, having user handles will help cut down on impersonation, since they'll be unique to every user and separate from existing channel names.

YouTube will begin to roll out handles starting next week, and it will progressively notify users when they can claim theirs --- so it will be a staged rollout rather than arriving at the same time for everyone.

YouTube says that it'll take into account factors such as notability in the platform and subscriber count for the rollout. Likewise, if you already have a custom URL for your YouTube channel, YouTube will set that aside for you as your handle, but you'll be able to change it once if you don't like it.

Source: YouTube