As it currently stands, Twitch Partners are not allowed to request Partner Support to change their alias to anything below 4 characters. I know that I along with multiple other Twitch Partners have ran into this issue when contacting Twitch support to try and remove extra numbers or special characters from our names. It has also been equally as frustrating for me and these other Twitch Partners when these name changes are continuing to be offered to the biggest Partners on the platform, but smaller or mid sized Partners are still rejected when they ask.

My suggestion is to allow Twitch Partner Support to help Twitch Partners in these situations so that they can change their alias's to have a minimum of 3 characters instead of the current 4+ requirement policy.

Reduce the amount of cooldown after a name change, I have had to wait for 6+ months to get my name changed after I accidentally changed my name. I didn't get a reply from support after 6 months either, so I had to wait it out.
Even when you change your name you might not even be able to get the name back, which is ridiculous in my opinion. Having to wait 6+ months to get your name back and yet not be able to get it is something that needs to be changed when I accidentally changed my name the Twitch.tv website crashed at the time and that's why I had to refresh the site and then it was logged into the wrong account, so it changed my name on my main account and not my alt. Therefor stuff like this should be reduced so it won't happen to anyone again.

The recycle program needs a massive overhaul.

There are far to many people waiting on unused usernames that are not released in a timely fashion.

I have been watching two names for years now. One is simply completely inactive with zero information on the profile and has never followed anyone, for years. That account also has never responded to private messages to even suggest someone logged in. **** I'd buy their account name from them if there was anyway I could contact them.

The other has the "Unless you have a time machine." message and may be an old twitch staff, or previous partner, but i have no way of knowing that. Can't they supply some reason to why I can't change to that name?

Such as: "This username is unavailable and is exempt from the recycle program"

Then in the FAQ they can just state the names that fall into this category are the old staff, partner.. etc names. So we know we won't get it. Transparency! And it wouldn't be difficult, Twitch I'm sure already has a list of names it will not release in its database, just tell us why.

I would like to suggest that there be way when we go to change our name and it says its "unavailable" for name change, that we can request a flag on it. That it can then be checked for activity and if it is actually inactive within the username recycle programs guidelines it can be put in an upcoming recycle. I'm sure this can be automated, Twitch can see if a name has logged in within six months or a year and if not then flag it, and actually do this, not like right now where inactive names MAY be recycled but probably won't be in any timely manner.

Inactive accounts under threat of recycle don't have to be deleted, you could just append the name with a bunch of random characters in case the owner comes back and you can be sure to send out multiple emails letting them know what is about to happen if they don't log in. Though this would defeat the purpose of clearing up space due to inactive accounts, at least you wouldn't be worried about someone not returning later because their name is gone.

They should also in some way be required to actually use the name. Why are some names taken but are not in use? Is there protection from possible name sellers? (Not that i've ever seen one for Twitch but its common in other areas, such as website urls, mmos usernames, social media handles) What if someone has taken a name and only logs in once a year on that alt account but that account has zero activity, they don't chat or watch any videos? Is that fair or right? Why is that allowed? Shouldn't that name be available for someone who will use it?

The current system suggests that inactive accounts will be recycled but it could take as little as six months or it could take years. We have no way of knowing when that will be or even if the name we want is eligible for recycle. I had a **** of time just getting twitch to tell me if Curse usernames from when Twitch bought Curse and automatically created accounts for them would be eligible to recycle. I was told all those names have already been recycled, but it took multiple emails and explaining on my end as the twitch staff responding just wanted to send me copy paste responses that never addressed my question.

Of course partners/affiliates and old staff names should be exempt from this to avoid possible fraud/impersonation.

I've been wanting to change my display name for a while, but every time I tried it gave me a not very specific error for it. Turns out, you can't have the same display name as other people. Why? This is counterproducent for those people who just set their given or family name as display names, so those who wish to put their name as "Tanaka" have to somehow change the spelling of their name to be allowed to have it? That doesn't make sense, the display name doesn't even overrid the normal username, so why do they both have to be unique?
Make it either one or the other, or just let display names be whatever.

I am in agreement with people requesting a reduction on the time before you're able to change your username. Even if i have to wait 2 months before i can change it to something else, I've tested out my current username, as of posting this, and have discovered i hate it. If you could revert a user name change in the first 24 hours at least, even if i had to wait 2 months until i try again, it would solve a lot of people's problems with it. I also hate how there's no way of testing out a username without having to commit to it for 2 months to begin with.

There should be something such as a page where people can search a username they want in order to check when it will be available.

This is especially necessary because previously used parter usernames are never available again, but as far as anyone is aware, there is no archive or list of those “never available” usernames.

Wanting a username that isn’t being used and trying to change to that username every day without knowing how long you will have to keep trying for it is absolutely exhausting and shouldn’t be something creators have to go through. Make it easier to work on our branding.

Guys please read all of this and vote if you want this to happen. Much Appreciated.

There is a problem for years with any other TWITCH STREAMER especially who are AFFILIATES that they want a USERNAME of their choice but its been taken and used already by any other viewer who is not a streamer or anything. So, to solve this problem here is an idea and I know we all want this. So the idea is that when somebody SIGNUP on TWITCH they will get a RANDOM USERNAME including of random numbers and random alphabets generated by TWITCH. They are normal account and they can do anything like STREAM or WATCH other STREAMERS but they just have random username and if they STREAM, once they get AFFILIATE then they will have the OPTION to have their own CUSTOM USERNAME of their choosing or liking and this thing also implies on EXISTING ACCOUNTS that are NOT AFFILIATES. This can solve the username not available problem for AFFILIATE STREAMERS. and the VIEWERS who just WATCH other streamers DON'T need a CUSTOM USERNAME because they don't need any kind of visibility or exposure they are on twitch just to watch but a STREAMER who is AFFILIATE need exposure and visibility and a CUSTOM USERNAME of their choice. So please TWITCH make this happen and its a problem for many years and many AFFILIATE STREAMERS are facing this issue including me and all of this suggestion or idea I think is the thing we all need and its a valid idea and I love to hear on this from you guys please TWITCH make this happen. I LOVE STREAMING ON TWITCH. LOVE and THANK YOU TWITCH.

Some people may have old accounts that they had forgotten about. In my case. I have one without the numbers at the end of the name. I recently was able to log into it and would like to have the ability to swap the name with my current account.

If someone can prove they own both of the accounts, it would be nice for some way to swap them. If I change the name of the account with no numbers, there's no guarantee I'll be able to be the one to snag it whenever it gets freed up and that could be 6+ months.

The suggestion: Add in the ability to swap names between accounts and could be some option on both ends to "approve" the swap before it goes through

I have wanted to change my twitch username multiple times, but I have decided against it because I do not want to have to go through the process of reintroducing myself to everyone that I have met previously in chats and talk them through me changing username. I am a moderator in multiple channels, and it would create a cluster if I completely changed my username. I think there should be an option when you change your username to TEMPORARILY put your old username in parenthesis next to your new username to avoid this issue. (An example of what I mean, New Username (old username): Hey guys hows everyone doing today!) I have talked about this idea in multiple chats and it seems to be well received. Many people that I have talked to have expressed the same feelings when it comes to changing their username, and I think being able to temporarily have your old username attached to your new username could relieve a lot of those problems!