Coming soon: Link your channel with a Google+ page (and keep your channel name)

Over the past several months we’ve been giving YouTube users the ability to change how they appear on YouTube, by using their Google+ profile on their YouTube channel.  Well-known creators such as Michael Buckley, Philip DeFranco, Kina Grannis, and Felipe Neto have chosen to use their Google name as their identity on YouTube, by linking their Google+ profile with their Channel. This has helped them access engagement and social features like Hangouts on Air.

You may have seen a prompt like the one below inviting you to use your Google identity on YouTube. If you haven’t, and you can opt in right now using your account settings.

Or you can keep your channel name!

While using a full name from a Google+ profile might work well for a creator who wants to build their brand as an individual, this simply doesn’t work if you don’t want a full name on your channel.  If you run a channel with a name like BlueXephos or VlogBrothers, you should create a Google+ page (as opposed to a profile) with that name.

In the coming weeks we’ll launch the option to link your channel with a Google+ page, which will allow you to use your channel name (even with spaces in it!) as your Google identity.  And yes, the advanced Google+ page management features that enable up to 50 people manage a single Google+ page, or a single person to manage up to 50 Google+ pages, will also work for channels that are linked with Google+ pages.

Why should creators use a Google identity?

If you unify your YouTube identity with Google+, it will be easier for your audience to find and connect with you on YouTube, Google, and across the web, and it will help you build your brand across all of Google’s products.  We’re also continually developing new engagement features like Hangouts on Air that take advantage of the best that both YouTube and Google+ have to offer.

We’ve been beta testing this option with some channels such as Google Analytics and YouTube Creators, and we’re planning to make this feature available to all creators in the coming weeks.