Snapchat will soon finally let you change your username

News
By Oliver Haslam
published

Snapchat Name Change Artwork
Snapchat Name Change Artwork (Image credit: Snap)

What you need to know

  • Snapchat will allow people to change their username from February 23.
  • People won't be able to choose a username that has already been used in the past.
  • Usernames can only be changed once per year.

Snapchat will finally let people change their usernames later this month, giving people the feature they've been craving for almost since the social network went live.

People will be able to ditch their old usernames from February 23 according to a report by The Verge with users now able to take a new name without having to create a whole new account just to ditch the one they came up with years ago.

In order to change your username, head to the profile screen by tapping the Bitmoji icon in the top right corner of the camera. Tap the gear icon, then "Username," and select "Change Username." Changing a username won't have any impact on your contacts, Snap code, Snap Score, or memories, according to Snapchat's press release.

There is, however, a catch. The same report notes that you'll only be able to change your username once per year and you won't be able to go back to one that was used in the past — either by you or someone else. That's a real shame and doesn't help do away with the problem created by username squatters, for example.

Snapchat allows people to share photos and videos with each other and is one of the best iPhone apps at what it does. That despite increasingly stuff competition from the likes of TikTok and Instagram.

Oliver Haslam
Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.