I have been watching for 10+ years for a username to open up that hasn't. Twitch is not even following their own documented practice of re-opening inactive usernames after 12 months and nobody at Twitch can seem to answer why.

I'd suggest an automated system for recycling non-verified usernames after 12 months of inactivity. However, verified usernames should still be handled manually through Twitch Support or a dedicated system.

Though I understand why people are frustrated, I'm far more against being able to take inactive usernames than than I am for it.

I feel that if it has to happen then there at the very least has to be several thorough warnings with a long time period between warnings and any action taken.
As said by others: usernames of Streamers (as opposed to Viewers) shouldn't be able to be taken just because of inactivity.

Honestly, I think this should remain a special case type situation where Streamers who have been of a certain size reliably for a while, can request a username that they are already well known as - in order to improve their findability. I.E. if they wanted <InsertName> but it was taken and thus when creating their account took <InsertName>1337, but everyone calls them <InsertName> and they are well known for it, AND the user with <InsertName> is a Viewer that has been inactive for years: then perhaps that is a situation in which the Streamer could specially request the inactive username. Rather than that any random Viewer who wishes to have a particular username can take someone else's.

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100% disagree with any release of user names.

This will allow people to impersonate old, retired creators. Even after 10 years or longer, someone may come back to the platform and should own their name forever.

How long is twitch thinking about before the username is up for grabs? I think twitch can send an email asking that username. I'm thinking one year if they haven't logged in and they can just choose a new username if they return.

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mimbros

C'mon Twitch... why don't you purge inactive usernames already?

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9+ Years of "reviewing", please provide if nothing else a form for users to submit for inactive/"squatting" usernames.

This has been marked as planned for 9 years now. Adding a one or two year period of inactivity putting the name up for grabs would do much more good than harm, with many unique names sitting completely unused for a decade now.

I'm against this. Sometimes users change their usernames temporarily for specific purposes. I would hate to see the likes of domain squatting coming to Twitch usernames.

This is a walking a tightrope situ just like on X imo. While I am eyeing up a username, it just feels like there are those who would like certain usernames to be remembered as a sort of 'legacy' like reckful, but then that begs the question: "WHICH accounts?". Imagine someone who had a twitch friend or relative that passed away years ago and someday out of the blue, they find someone with the same handle streaming or trolling in chat, I'd be pretty shocked. HOWEVER, if it was for a name that someone owned originally but forgot the details for and can prove it was theirs, then I'm all for it.

I've been waiting to change my name to a different user and i checked and no has taken it, but when i try to change it. It says that user is not available. So how can I get it change to the user I want?

"We’re reviewing this. Curious how long you think would be ok." at least shorter than your consideration regarding this request, voted by 1152 people. :)

Does Active Directory have an expiration date.
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IMHO a pretty fair timeline and approach could be like...

- after 1 year of complete inactivity: send an e-mail to the account owner to warn about them losing their username
- the e-mail should contain easy instructions and potentially a link for the user to hold on to their username for longer
- 8 weeks later reset their username, if user hasn't taken any action
- if user becomes active again check availability of the old username => if it's still available, restore it
- if old username is unavailable, give the user an easy prompt to change their username

Twitch changed their username policy and hasn't made ANY announcement whatsoever here and on the uservoice. The new article mentions NOTHING about recycling usernames. Stupid how most inactive names are locked to 2% of users, partners.

There seems to be a little update to this. Not sure if I can freely post links, that’s why I’ll just quote the tweet from zachbussey:

“ Twitch updated the Help Article on Username Transfer and Recycling.

They mainly updated the wording, but they did remove a section about recycling inactive usernames. (I'd wager they won't ever release inactive account names.)

[Screenshot of Help Article with Chances highlighted]”