Username Changes

What your username is

Your username is the short handle other people use to find and mention you, shown with an @ in front of it. It is unique across BranchBeat, so no two accounts can hold the same one at the same time. It is different from your display name, which is the first and last name shown on your profile and can be changed freely as often as you like.

A username is 3 to 20 characters long. It must start with a letter, and after that it can contain lowercase letters, numbers and underscores. Usernames are stored in lowercase, so @GuitarPlayer and @guitarplayer are the same handle and cannot both exist. Matching is exact rather than partial, so @tarplayer is a different account again and is free for somebody else to hold.

How to change your username

Open the BranchBeat app, go to Profile → Account, edit the username field, and save. If the name you want is already taken, or is being held for someone else, you will be told before the change is made.

You have 48 hours to change your mind

For 48 hours after you change your username, your old one is held for you and nobody else can take it. If you decide you preferred it, you can go back to it during that window at no cost and without waiting.

When the 48 hours are up, the hold ends and your old username becomes available for anyone on BranchBeat to claim. We cannot get it back for you after that, and we cannot take a username away from whoever claims it next.

You can change your username once every 30 days

After a change, you have to wait 30 days before changing again. Going back to your previous username inside the 48-hour window does not count against this and is not blocked by it.

The reason for the wait is the 48-hour hold itself. Without a waiting period, someone could move between two usernames every couple of days and keep both permanently out of everyone else's reach while only ever using one. The 30 days make the hold do what it is for, which is undoing a change you regret, and nothing else.

What breaks when you change it

Your username appears in places that were written before you changed it, and those do not follow you. Before you confirm a change, the app tells you what will be affected. Specifically:

• Links to your profile that use your old username stop working. Anyone who saved or shared one will get a page telling them the account was not found.
• Mentions of your old handle in comments and messages that were already sent stay as they were written. They are part of what somebody else wrote, so we do not rewrite them.
• Your old username may still be shown on posts you published before the change until those catch up.
• Other people's devices may show your old handle for a short time until the app next refreshes.

We do not redirect your old username to your new one. A redirect would mean anyone holding an old link learns your new handle, and it would also mean the old name could never be released to anyone else. Everything you have posted stays yours and stays on your account; it is only the handle in the address that changes.

What does not change

Your account itself is not affected. Your posts, recordings, comments, followers, people you follow, messages, saved playlists, subscription and calibration data all stay exactly as they were. Everything on BranchBeat is attached to your account rather than to your handle, which is why a change to the handle does not move any of it.

If you did not change it

If your username changes and it was not you, contact us straight away at support@branchbeat.com so we can secure the account.

Usernames we keep back

Some usernames are not available to claim. These include names that impersonate BranchBeat or its staff, names that read as part of the service itself, and names reserved because releasing them would mislead people. We may also decline or reclaim a username that is being used to impersonate somebody else, or that breaks the rules in our Terms of Service.

Usernames are not reserved for future use

Usernames are given out first come, first served, and they are meant to be used. We do not reserve a username on request, we do not hold one for a launch or a rebrand, and we do not maintain a waiting list for a handle somebody else already has. An account that exists only to hold a name may have that name released.

The one exception is a trademark claim, which is the only basis on which we will review a username that has already been claimed. That process is described in our Trademark Policy.

If a username is taken

We cannot release a username that another account is using, and we will not tell you who holds it or pass a message on. If the handle you want is gone, the app suggests available alternatives while you type.

Questions

Write to support@branchbeat.com and we will help. If you are reporting that a username infringes a trademark you own, follow the steps in the Trademark Policy instead, so that your report arrives with everything we need to act on it.