Now might be the perfect time to grab that Twitter username you’ve always wanted, which, for the longest time, has remained unavailable in the app, with Chief Twit Elon Musk announcing that the company is currently in the process of purging its system of inactive profiles, freeing up handles, and providing new opportunities for users to create unique account names.
Arm The Purgers
Musk himself confirms that this will result in a lot of @handles will become available, which could give you the chance to grab that top username that you’ve always wanted. That is if scammers and spammers don’t beat you to the punch. Such was a key problem identified in this process when Twitter first thought of it, after Musk’s takeover, of course.
Back in December, Musk said that Twitter would soon be freeing up some 1.5 billion usernames that were no longer active. Twitter delayed the process after users called for an exploration of memorialization to keep the accounts of deceased users still active. However, now, Musk is seemingly moving on. It’s not clear if memorialization is a part of this new plan, but apparently, Twitter is now in the process of freeing up these @handles.
Does that mean that these accounts, as well as their old Tweets, will be deleted entirely? Will it now be a free-for-all in trying to get these vacant handles, or will there be some other process? We say that because at one point, Musk was entertaining the idea of auctioning off freed account names.
Does this also mean that users who lose followers as a result, and potentially drop below the threshold for, say, monetization will still be able to use Subscriptions? Although we can’t say for sure, and because Twitter currently no longer has a comms department, there’s no way to get in touch with the company. For now, we can only go on what Musk says, usually via Tweets, which could be what Musk actually wants.
The Wrap
At most, we’re all kind of in the same boat, at least in the sense that we all kind of just know the same thing. The best any of us can do right now is to speculate based on the same, but it does seem, based on what Musk has shared, that dormant @handles will gradually be made available as Twitter deactivates them over time.
The latest update we have on this push is that Musk has clarified that some accounts, such as those from deceased celebrities, will remain, at least keeping some form of concessions. To add, he also said that all deactivated accounts will be archived, but their @handles will be made available to other users.
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