How to swap Twitter handles?

January 27, 2021 10:01 AM

I have two Twitter accounts, and want to change the handle of the less popular one to the more popular one. details below the fold

I know the process for changing usernames, but will I be able to do this instantaneously? Like, if I change PopularUsername to PopularUsername1, can I then IMMEDIATELY change Unpopular to PopularUsername, or will there be a timelag? I don't want to risk losing PopularUsername because someone else scoops it up. (Why the heck Twitter won't let you merge accounts is beyond me.)

Thanks!

posted by cyndigo to Computers & Internet (4 answers total)

Best answer: Several years ago I did something similar. I can't tell you if it still works the same way.
I had a twitter handle I didn't want to use anymore as my primary, but wanted to keep it "reserved" for the future.
I renamed my primary to my new twitter handle, and then I created a new account with the old handle, pretty much instantly, and it "just worked".

Since twitter handles are free, you can always test it out by creating 2 brand new ones and trying to swap them and see what happens...
posted by jozxyqk at 10:18 AM on January 27, 2021 [2 favorites]

I can’t speak to Twitter, but I’ve done this with Instagram and it was instantaneous. So definitely possible that it is with Twitter too.
posted by sillysally at 10:29 AM on January 27, 2021 [1 favorite]

Best answer: You could easily test this by registering two new Twitter accounts and trying out swapping the names.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 1:52 PM on January 27, 2021 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: I did two test accounts as suggested. It's switched and was instantaneous, thank you all!!!
posted by cyndigo at 4:35 PM on January 27, 2021 [2 favorites]