(Updated July 2019)
Is your desired Twitter username already taken and no longer available? So annoying! I’ve been there. I truly feel your pain.
When I first set up my Twitter account in 2008, I intentionally wanted to keep a low profile, especially because I was still an employee at a large company. It’s hard to believe now, but there was once a time when the future and potential popularity of Twitter was uncertain. Back in 2008, they only had about 500K monthly active users (MAUs), and even my tech peers in the Bay Area where I lived at the time weren’t sure if the platform would really take off. So I picked a VERY obscure username, jp_liu (underscores must have been in at the time), just to tinker with the platform, but to keep myself as invisible as possible.
Fast forward five years, when I decided to launch my own business, and suddenly, Twitter has 240 million MAUs. Crazy. As of 2019, Twitter has over 330 million MAUs. So as far as anyone can tell, Twitter is here to stay.
As a career consultant who coaches clients on building a strong, consistent personal brand, including securing your online usernames, having that weird jp_liu username was not ideal. I figured I’d just head on over and grab @JosephLiu, but guess what. Someone else had taken it. In 2009. Grrrrr!!! The user didn’t seem active, so I tried to write to him to see if he would give it up. No response. Okay, so how about @joeliu. Nope taken. @joseph_liu? Taken. @josephpliu? Taken. Fine. At LEAST @jpliu without the underscore. Taken.
Argh!!!!
My best, albeit inelegant solution, was to settle for @JosephLiu_. Wow, did that underscore drive me crazy. Just ask my wife. Every time I saw it, I was annoyed. And I was even more annoyed because I actually joined before all the people who grabbed those other alternatives.
I recommend everyone who cares about their personal brand to at least secure your @FirstLast username on Twitter right away while you can. If you’re reading this, it may be too late though. Sorry.
So what can you do if you want a username that’s already taken? Well, you could just try to come up with another username. Or you can do what I did and try to secure it anyway. Here are the exact steps I followed to successfully secure my desired Twitter username @JosephPLiu, which had already been taken by someone else.
This process has no guarantees. In fact, my attempts did NOT work for me the first two times I tried, but with persistence, it eventually worked for me. I hope it can work for you too.
6 steps to secure your Twitter username if it’s already taken
1. Secure the corresponding Top Level Domain (TLD), ideally .COM
At the time of securing my username @JosephPLiu, I had secured josephpliu.com as my primary website. During my first couple of failed attempts to secure my username, I did NOT yet own my matching .COM website. So I’d recommend you secure your username.com. If the .COM isn’t available, you could try .net, .org, or another popular Top Level Domain (TLD). Try to get the .COM though because the .COM TLD is the most widely used and recognised TLD.
If you’re looking for a good domain registrar, I recommend Namecheap to my clients because it offers some of the most competitive purchase & renewal fees. I used to use GoDaddy. However, although their initial, first-year pricing is competitive, their ongoing renewal fees are higher, so you’ll save in the long run if you go with Namecheap.
If you need hosting, I highly recommend A2 Hosting, which has lightning fast servers and fantastic customer service along with reasonable fees. I switched from GoDaddy to A2 in 2017, and I’ll never go back. Also, A2 includes many things like SSL, domain privacy, and site backups for free, while GoDaddy charges additional fees for each of these. Note, these are affiliate links.
May 2019 Update: In 2019, I shifted to josephliu.co, which I now use as my primary domain because, well, it’s shorter. Also, the .CO TLD seemed to be more widely accepted as a credible, professional alternative to .COM according to Namecheap’s 2018 Domain Insights & Trends Report, where .CO was the #2 most popular ccTLD (country specific Top Level Domain) in H1 2018. They stated “.CO has become increasingly popular because it’s short, SEO friendly, and synonymous with ‘company.’” However, .COM is still king.
2. List that .COM as the primary site in your account
Edit your profile, and add this URL in as the main website.
3. Ensure the target username’s profile is inactive
Every time I checked the old @JosephPLiu Twitter account, it seemed completely dead and inactive. You ideally want your target username’s profile page to look something like this:
If there’s an egg in the profile, the person hasn’t Tweeted in years, and/or their followers of following numbers have been static for a long time, you may be in luck. Proceed to the next step. If the username you want is taken by someone who’s very active on Twitter, you’re probably out of luck. No need to ready further. Sorry 🙁
When I realised the old @JosephPLiu account had been inactive for years, I didn’t feel as bad about attempting to snatch it away. As a courtesy, I actually Tweeted to the user (this now shows my current username, but I tweeted from my old one):
@josephpliu, would you be open to allowing me to take over your Twitter username if you're not actively using it? -Joseph (please DM me)
— Joseph Liu (@JosephPLiu) November 23, 2016
I’m torn about whether you should flag your intentions to the person from whom you want the username. On the one hand, it’s a courteous thing to do. But on the other, it could just make that user bunker in. I’ll let you make your own judgement call on that.
4. File an impersonation claim with Twitter
You can report an account for impersonation with Twitter using this form.
Select: “An account is pretending to be me or someone I know” then, “I am being impersonated”
For “Username of the account you are reporting,” enter the username you want. “Your Username” is auto-filled in. In my case, I entered @JosephPLiu.
Enter your email. Now, in my case, my email had “josephpliu” in it, matching the same syntax as the username I wanted. I’m not sure if this makes any difference, but it can’t hurt.
In the “Anything else you’d like to tell us?” section, explain why you think you should get this username. I’d ensure you at least cover off:
- Why you should be the rightful owner
- The evidence suggesting the target username’s account is inactive
Here’s exactly what I wrote in case it’s helpful:
I included both my passport and driver’s license clearly showing my full name as supporting documents.
That’s it. Submit your info, and keep your fingers crossed. You’ll receive an immediate email from Twitter acknowledging your request.
5. Wait for an email from Twitter
If you’re lucky, and Twitter accepts your request, you will receive an email from Twitter. I heard back only 3 working days later with this email:
This makes me think you could be successful in doing this even if you don’t have an active Twitter account, but I’m not really sure.
6. Email Twitter back with your desired option
I immediately emailed them back, requesting option 1 above, stating:
“I already have a Twitter account, which is @JosephLiu_. I’d like to keep all my tweets and followers in place, but replace it with the username @josephpliu if possible.”
In 10 minutes, I received one final email from them stating the transfer had been completed:
HOORAY!!!!! No more underscore!!
BONUS TIP: Re-secure your old username & set up a forwarding message.
Your old username will be immediately released, so I’d recommend you be ready to grab it back up, at least temporarily, so that when people click on old Tweets or references that refer to your old profile username, people don’t end up landing on a dead page.
I would recommend you NOT user your full name on the old profile page to avoid confusing Google rankings, which you’ll want to favor your active account. I just put J Liu.
Just include a brief description indicating your new username in your profile description and a pinned Tweet if you want. You can see what I’ve done here at twitter.com/JosephLiu_. I may eventually cancel this account, but it’s a good for the temporary transition period.
Create your consistent presence online
If you’re not able to get your desired username, you could always try to come up with another username. However, securing your desired profile URL allows you to have a more professional-looking handle, and also allow you to have a consistent personal branding across all your social media profile (I use @JosephPLiu across most my social media platforms including LinkedIn and YouTube).
Consistency is always nice. So after you’ve secured your Twitter username, you may want to also consider grabbing your username on these other platforms before someone else does.
Hope you found this useful. If it works for you, I’d love to hear from you in the comments. Good luck!
Learn how to build a strong personal brand
Once you’ve secured your Twitter user names, if you want to learn more about how to build a strong personal brand using social media platforms like Twitter, LinkedIn, or Medium, join my course on “Building a Strong Personal Brand to Land Your Next Dream Role.” In the course, you’ll learn:
- Powerful principles of branding
- A simple branding framework to build your own unique personal brand
- How to create a focused summary of your professional strengths
- Ways to reinforce your personal brand in your social media profiles and job hunting.
I offer this course at a special price to my website visitors, giving you lifetime access to the course for $149 (75% off regular $200). Preview the course and join today if you want to learn how to build your professional reputation and stand out to land your next dream role.
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Unfortunately this did not work for me 🙁
David, sorry to hear this process didn’t work for you. Although it worked for me, Twitter’s unfortunately the final arbitor here 🙁 I hope you’re able to find another username that works for you.
Didn’t work for me either. They told me “looks like you’re requesting a username rather than reporting impersonation” and they told me to add an underscore to my name. Unbelievably frustrating, especially after grabbing the .Com
I’m sorry it didn’t work out for you. Unfortunately, what I’ve outlined above is definitely not guaranteed to work, although it did for me. I completely understand your username frustration. I’ve been there myself, and I wish Twitter would honestly just do a purge of inactive Twitter handle to prevent a lot of these frustrations.
Will it work if i send them a pic of my school id because im stil a student
I don’t think a school pic alone will convince them. I had to follow all the steps I outlined here, and even then, it’s not guaranteed to work.
I follow your steps and it worked! Well, it failed on my first attempt. Twitter said that at this time, they are unable to accommodate individual requests for inactive or suspended @usernames. I tried again with the same steps, same message, and lucky me, they can release the username for me 😀
I suggest to everyone who want to follow this article, if it didn’t work, try and try again 😀
Reisha, that’s fantastic to hear that this process worked for you. Never hurts to try a couple times, right? What’s your new Twitter username? I’m glad you’ve been able to secure this important online social media asset for yourself. I’d welcome you sharing this article with others who might find it useful!
Right, filing impersonation claim was easy, we can try many times with very little effort. My Twitter username is @reisha, and actually I just created Twitter account right after I received email that Twitter can release that username for me 😀
And by the way, I didn’t own domain reisha.com because someone already had, but that website has never been updated for years. So I choose reisha.net.
What did you write in description can you tell me exact same words
Unfortunately, the information I have about what I wrote is all already included in this article.
Thanks for the article, Joseph, although my first attempt failed even though I followed your original message closely. I think it’s because my requested name isn’t my personal name as with you and Reisha, but the name of my business. Here’s the message I got back (rather quickly, I might add):
“Thanks for bringing this to our attention. It appears that you’re requesting a username rather than reporting an account that’s impersonating you. This form is only for reporting accounts that violate our impersonation policy.
In general, adding numbers, underscores or abbreviations can help you claim a great available username. To learn more about changing your username, see https://support.twitter.com/articles/14609.”
I don’t agree with them that adding numbers makes a company username better. Maybe I should use the “impersonating my brand” form instead? What would you suggest?
Unfortunately, with these things, the process isn’t necessarily guaranteed to work, although it has worked for some people. I agree that adding numbers or underscores is not ideal. I haven’t tried the “Impersonating my brand” form, but I suppose you could try it? Another idea could be to add a modifier based on the type of business you have? For example, I know some podcasts add the word “show” at the end. Sorry I can’t be more helpful here.
These petty losers still won’t release a handle that I had control over… any idea if the support systems are different for each country?
Sorry to hear this has been a struggle. So frustrating, isn’t it! Unfortunately, I don’t know if different support systems are out there for different countries, but I would suspect not.
I tried twice and no luck but I guess I will give it a few more tries. It’s so frustrating that Twitter doesn’t release the handle even though the owner has abandoned it for 7 years 🙁
Sorry to hear this didn’t work for you. I know how frustrating this can be.
Just wanted to say that I followed this to the T and it worked for me within a few hours. Except in my case it wasn’t my name, it was my company name, and I didn’t own the top level domain, but one similar. However, I did own the youtube, facebook, and instagram equivalents. Either way, I scanned all my documents and request a 7+ year dormant domain and it worked in a flash. So thank you!
Scott, so happy to hear the process I outlined worked out for you. Must be a good feeling to have all your usernames, including Twitter! Great stuff!
May I ask you what information you sent to Twitter to verify that you owned the other accounts with the same name?
I have tried this twice now, but still no luck.
I attached my passport & driver’s license to prove my identity and said “I’d be happy to provide you with any additional information you require to support the possibility of me claiming the username.”
Did you make the request like Joseph? I mean did you use the first option (An account is pretending to be me) rather than the second one (An account is pretending to be or represent my company, brand, or organization.)?
Hey Scott, You mentioned you did this for your company.
Did you use the ‘An account is pretending to be me or someone I know.’ option or the ‘An account is pretending to be or represent my company, brand, or organization.’ option?
Thanks
Thanks for the insightful article, Joseph. I’ve had my eye on an inactive username for a while. I’ll try your suggestions and hope for the best. Cheers!
Matt, yeah, give it a shot! I’d love to hear if it ends up working for you. Good luck!
Hi, Joseph! When you get the username, all the tweets and mentions made by the previous owner are still linked to it? Thank you!
You may need to check with Twitter on this, but I’d assume yes. You could use a tool like Tweetdeck or Tweepi to delete old tweets though.
Hey i tried it, only they sent me this:
Hello,
Thanks for bringing this to our attention. We have been unable to determine that the account you reported is in violation of our Impersonation Policy (https://support.twitter.com/articles/18366).
To allow us to investigate further please provide additional information on the account that demonstrates a clear intent to assume your identity. This can include:
Specific descriptions of impersonating content or behavior.Links to reproduced content.A link to a page on your website which contains an image or content owned by you that is currently used by the reported account.A link to one or more tweets by the reported account where they are actively misleading users (this help page explains how to find the link to a Tweet’s status link: https://support.twitter.com/articles/80586).
Twitter’s policies prohibit accounts that impersonate individuals in order to actively deceive and mislead others. Accounts with similar appearances (such as similar background or avatar images), or accounts with similar usernames, are not automatically in violation.
Thanks,
Twitter
Do you have any tips to answer on this?
Anthony, I never got to a stage where I received that response, so I’m unfortunately not in a position to really advise you on how to respond. Sorry to hear this didn’t work for you.
Now I tried it again, and got this:
Hello,
We received your request for @USERNAME and are not able to release it to you because the account is currently active.
Usernames on active accounts that are not in violation of the Twitter Rules (https:/twitter.com/rules) or Terms of Service (https://twitter.com/tos) are not available for release.
If you believe the account is violating our impersonation policy, please submit a report (https://support.twitter.com/forms/impersonation) and reply to this email with the case number so we can continue to help. Violating accounts are subject to suspension.
Thanks,
Twitter Support
It isn’t active for 3 years… is it still possible ro get it with some technique?
Anthony, I’m sorry, but I’m not sure how you should proceed in this situation. I’d just let them know that the account’s been inactive, although that could be difficult to prove because some people just use Twitter to follow others rather than to Tweet. If they’re saying it’s active, the likely reality is that someone is in fact using it in some way.
Thanks for sharing this detailed guide, Joseph.
I established my case, gathered the evidence, applied and it worked just like you showed us on the screenshots. I was able to retrieve my company’s name on Twitter on the bases of account inactivity. Twitter was clear that the account didn’t impersonate my business.
Trying the same with my personal account. They rejected the impersonation claim, but funny thing is: they were very vague when addressing the inactive claim: “we are unable to accommodate individual requests for inactive or suspended @usernames. If a username you would like is being used by an account that appears inactive, you should consider selecting an available variation for your use on Twitter.”
YES they are able to accommodate individual requests for inactive usernames… just did on the account that had my business involved.
So it’s confusing, because it sounds like a generic, canned response.
Curious if anyone would be able to solve this conundrum?
I’m glad to hear this process worked for you, at least partially. That’s too bad it didn’t work for your personal account. It sounds like Twitter may not always honor these requests when trying to obtain an inactive & suspended username for personal names, although it seemed to work for your business name, which is interesting. I haven’t faced this exact situation myself, but curious if anyone else has managed to solve this?
I just tried today and within a couple hours I got, “Thanks for bringing this to our attention. It appears that you’re requesting a username rather than reporting an account that’s impersonating you. This form is only for reporting accounts that violate our impersonation policy……” It is using a pseudonym that I use across all forums and the only proof I could offer was screenshots from the profile page of those accounts. I also haven’t bought the domain name yet because I wanted to try without it. Was there certain amount of time before you resubmitted?
Jacob, I don’t know if there’s a general rule of thumb when it comes to resubmitting, but I’d imagine you may want to wait at least 1 month and also ensure you’ve taken additional steps to support your case like getting your .COM website. Good luck!
Hmm interesting. I resubmitted it a couples hours after I posted my comment and got a different response..
” Thank you for taking the time to submit your report. After carefully investigating the reported account, we have determined that it is not in violation of Twitter’s impersonation policy.
In order for an account to be in violation of the policy, it must portray another person or business in a misleading or deceptive manner. The full policy can be found here: https://support.twitter.com/articles/18366.
Please note that any documents you may have uploaded to assist in our investigation will be deleted.
Additionally, we are unable to accommodate individual requests for inactive or suspended @usernames. If a username you would like is being used by an account that appears inactive, you should consider selecting an available variation for your use on Twitter.”
I guess I am about to resubmit the same message again and see if I get yet another different response. ^^ Trying to avoid paying for another domain name but I may just pay the $14 for a year and see if it gets me what I want.
Thanks for sharing your experience. That’s too bad. Well, it wouldn’t hurt to try with the domain name in place, although that’s unfortunately not a guarantee. These things seem to be judged on a case-by-case basis. Good luck!
Thanks for the guide I kept filing working minutes of getting declined.
I finally got through where they asked me to upload documents proving who I was. I uploaded a copy of my business card and ID and they said it wasn’t enough so I uploaded documents showing I owned the domain, and the username on other sites. I included what they sent below. I am responding by saying how it impacts my business and outreach to the community as well as reiterating I have owned the username on several other services. Hello,
Thanks for bringing this to our attention. We have been unable to determine that the account you reported is in violation of our Impersonation Policy (https://support.twitter.com/articles/18366).
To allow us to investigate further please provide additional information on the account that demonstrates a clear intent to assume your identity. This can include:
Specific descriptions of impersonating content or behavior.
Links to reproduced content.
A link to a page on your website which contains an image or content owned by you that is currently used by the reported account.
A link to one or more tweets by the reported account where they are actively misleading users (this help page explains how to find the link to a Tweet’s status link: https://support.twitter.com/articles/80586).
Twitter’s policies prohibit accounts that impersonate individuals in order to actively deceive and mislead others. Accounts with similar appearances (such as similar background or avatar images), or accounts with similar usernames, are not automatically in violation.
Thanks,
Twitter”
Jacob, thanks for sharing your experience here. Unfortunately, this process doesn’t work every everyone out there, and Twitter seems to treat these cases on a case-by-case basis. All I can suggest is to keep trying and respond with any sort of appeals you wish to make. I know it’s frustrating.
Man, I’ve wanted @brinke for years. The woman who has it, has had it since 2007 with no activity—ever. No tweets, nothing. Sigh.
I feel your pain. It’s so irritating. I understand how someone might squat for a bit if they plan to use it in the future, but there should be a reasonable cutoff so people can’t be squatting on these names indefinitely.
Hi Joseph, quick question. Is there an age limit to these user names? I’m looking at a name that has been inactive for 5 years. Thanks for answer.
As far as I know, there is currently no age limit to inactive usernames that triggers them to be made available again, which is a shame.
I just tried this out, but unfortunately, had no luck. They emailed me saying that it was a request for a username instead of an impersonation case. I’ll try again in a month or so but if it doesn’t work again, I don’t know what I am going to do. This stinks, but oh well. *sighs*
Adrian, sorry to hear this didn’t work for you. From the comments I’ve received, the process I laid out seems to work in some instances, but not in others unfortunately. I know how frustrating it is!
Unfortunately this didn’t work for me. I tried a second time as someone suggested this worked a second time for them and again was denied. Thanks for the guide anyway Joseph, much appreciated! Really not a fan of Twitter’s inactive account policy. The username I want is from an account which has been dead for a decade!!!!
Sorry to hear this didn’t work for you. The process is a bit unpredictable and unfortunately not guaranteed to work. I hear you on the inactive policy. They really should not allow people to just sit on usernames. I empathise with your frustration.
Thanks on your marvelous posting! I definitely enjoyed reading it, you’re a great author.
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hav a nice day!
Jeramy, glad to hear you enjoyed reading this. I hope you found it helpful.
This worked perfectly for me. Got it done in two days although it probably would have been done more quickly but I missed the email from Twitter. In my case it wasn’t a personnal account but a brand account. Here is what I received From Twitter. Thanks for the advice. I based my report to Twitter on the instructions you gave above.
Twitter
Hello,
The account you have reported is currently inactive. We can release this username for your brand’s use by transferring the username to a Twitter account that you manage. We can either rename an account you currently have or transfer the username to a new placeholder account that you create.
To proceed with the transfer, simply reply to this email with the username of the account you want renamed with the requested username. This could be an existing Twitter account that you want renamed or a new placeholder account (for example, twitter.com/temp123 or @temp123). Once we receive the username for the existing account you want renamed or placeholder account, we will apply the requested username to it.
A username transfer only changes the username of your account.
All the existing content on your existing or placeholder account (followers, Tweets) will remain intact.
A username change will not affect your existing followers, Direct Messages, or replies. Your followers will simply see a new username next to your picture when you Tweet.
Since other users will need to mention and message you at your new username, you may find it helpful to post a Tweet to let your followers know that you’ve selected a new username.
After the transfer, your previous or temporary placeholder username will be released immediately for use by other accounts.
Safety tip: We strongly advise you to use an email address at your company’s official domain with your Twitter account. This makes it much easier for us to help you if you should encounter issues with your account in the future. To learn how to change the email address of a Twitter account, see https://support.twitter.com/articles/15356.
Thank,
Twitter Support
Rene, great to hear these steps worked for you!
Rene can you please provide the exact jargon you used by chance?
I’d also be interested in knowing what info you sent / supporting documents for your business/brand. I’m in the process of looking in to a new venture and should have the domain secured shortly, but at this stage I don’t have any registered name/logo/trademark. I’m just thinking ahead and trying to secure all the social media related pieces. For reference, the inactive account I am looking at has no posts since creation 10 years ago and 3 followers. I will make my case once the website and domain email are setup. Thanks for providing your process, Joseph! 🙂
The only reason I ask because I’m positive twitter doesn’t have live agent support (based out of India through IP research) and use bots that scan for particular jargon or words and based off those findings they will automatically accept or deny your request, especially when it comes to username request.
I just sent mine in for review. Praying this works because I hate numbers in my username lol. I will let ya know how it goes.
well its been 2 seconds and they already denied me
Sorry to hear it didn’t work for you. I wish the process was guaranteed, but it seems to be a case-by-case basis with no consistent patterns from what I can tell from the people who have written to me.
I also did the same I received an email stating the account is inactive and we can release it , I emailed them back as required ,However didn’t herd back from them , neither the account has been transfered.
Kunal, not sure what happened in your situation. Sounds like you actually managed to get approval for the transfer (the hardest part), so you may want to try and just email them again.
Joseph, thank you for this helpful guide. I’ve submitted the first request to Twitter for the transfer of an inactive username, and I’ll let you and everyone here know how it goes. This walkthrough was incredibly helpful.
One additional piece of information I included, and I apologize that this is a bit morbid. I was able to find some information online that indicated the previous owner of the inactive Twitter handle I’m seeking has passed away. The online information I found indicated that he passed away just a few weeks after he posted the most recent tweet, which would certainly explain why the (formerly busy) account went dormant, nearly 4 years ago.
I included those online obituary links in my message to Twitter. I figured it couldn’t hurt; if an actual person at Twitter is reviewing these requests, then having some indicators (not 100% proof, but still) that the former owner is deceased might help my case.
Mark, I’m happy to hear you found this useful. I’ll be interested to hear how things work out for you, especially given the situation with the former owner. Hope it works out for you. Keep me posted!
Joseph, thanks for the guide!
Just sent my fifth ticket – fingers crossed! Twitter really seems to think I want the account to post memes or something instead of promoting my personal brand :/
Really wish we had a way to report inactive accounts!
Cheers
Candal, yeah, I wish we had a way to report inactive accounts too because they just use up valuable username real estate on Twitter. It’s quite annoying. Good luck to you!
Thanks Joseph Liu.
This worked for us very well. We secured exact brand name username “pagecdn” on all other social media accounts including facebook, instagram, linkedin, pinterest… but the one on twitter was associated with an inactive account.
Your blog post really helped us get the username for our brand. Really really thankful for your help. Our current account is at https://twitter.com/pagecdn
Hamid, that’s really great to hear that this process worked so well for you! Thanks for letting me know!
Hi Joseph! This worked wonders, we were able to change our username in less than 24 hours! I am really happy I found your blog, definitely following you!
I’m so happy to hear this worked well for you! Nice!
Ok.
Thank you.
I wanted to use @twistedtikka handle which was a suspended account, for our food truck business. We own the TLD, active and also the handles in FB/Instagram.
Reported impersonation and received a response within minutes as below:
“IMPORTANT: Your response is required in order for Twitter to continue investigating the reported account.
Hello,
Thanks for bringing this to our attention. We have received your report on the impersonation of your company or organization on Twitter.
Next steps:
If there is information on the reported account that shows a clear violation of our impersonation policy (https://help.twitter.com/rules-and-policies/twitter-impersonation-policy), please reply to this email with a detailed description of the information:
This could include replies, links to reproduced content, or other Tweets.
This help page explains how to find a Tweet’s status link: https://help.twitter.com/using-twitter/tweet-and-moment-url.
If you hold a trademark related to the account you are reporting, you may want to review our trademark policy to determine whether you want to file a report of a trademark policy violation: https://help.twitter.com/rules-and-policies/twitter-trademark-policy.
Please note that while we review reported accounts that may be in violation of our impersonation policy, we are unable to accommodate requests for inactive or suspended usernames.
Thanks,
Twitter”
Responded with details of who we are, lets see what happens…
It worked!!
“Hello,
The account you have reported is currently inactive. We can release this username for your brand’s use by transferring the username to a Twitter account that you manage. We can either rename an account you currently have or transfer the username to a new placeholder account that you create.
To proceed with the transfer, simply reply to this email with the username of the account you want renamed with the requested username. This could be an existing Twitter account that you want renamed or a new placeholder account (for example, twitter.com/temp123 or @temp123). Once we receive the username for the existing account you want renamed or placeholder account, we will apply the requested username to it.
A username transfer only changes the username of your account.
All the existing content on your existing or placeholder account (followers, Tweets) will remain intact.
A username change will not affect your existing followers, Direct Messages, or replies. Your followers will simply see a new username next to your picture when you Tweet.
Since other users will need to mention and message you at your new username, you may find it helpful to post a Tweet to let your followers know that you’ve selected a new username.
After the transfer, your previous or temporary placeholder username will be released immediately for use by other accounts.
Safety tip: We strongly advise you to use an email address at your company’s official domain with your Twitter account. This makes it much easier for us to help you if you should encounter issues with your account in the future. To learn how to change the email address of a Twitter account, see https://support.twitter.com/articles/15356.
Thank,
Twitter Support”
Great to hear my suggested approach worked for you. Enjoy having your new Twitter username!
Thanks for telling us how to get a twitter username someone else has.
Sure things. Hope you found it useful.
Hello Joseph,
I would want to thank you for these guidelines. There’s no doubt I am the happiest fella on this side of world now. It WORKED!!! In my case, they kept requesting the documents over and over after numerous counts of uploads. But in the end, it worked. My username was pretty much of a premium account, I guess it’s why they had to quadruple check..lol
I first got the domain (which by the was was also a premium one), then emailed them with an email from the domain. I attached the business registration and commence certificate, a passport copy, my business card and a letter of authorization from my organization (which I prepared since I am the company’s CEO and Founder). This I think was enough for them to proceed with the transfer.
Here I am the happiest man alive. I just to come back on here to share my experience hopefully, it’ll inspire someone out there to never give up and keep pushing till they get it.
Thank you once again and I will be glad to update you on my organizations progress.
Nana, so happy to hear this process worked for you. Thanks for sharing your success story!
Grrr, I’ve a blog on my website and it sucks. I actually
removed it, but may have to bring it back again. I was given by you
motivation!
Keep on writing!
Having an owned domain that aligns with the username you’re trying to get certainly wouldn’t hurt.
Can you please add your Twitter message (Point Number 5) Furthermore what can I write Twitter if I want a suspended name
Tobi, I’ve already included the message I sent to Twitter in this post (see point #4). There’s no further message associated with point #5 other than to follow the instructions in their message. Unfortunately, I can’t comment on how to approach this if the name you want is a suspended one. I’d suggest writing directly to Twitter to inquire about that.
I mean I want to copy and paste your message. I cant copy text from images lol
I’d simply refer you to the image with the text.
I tried this approach, as my current username has an underscore, and I wanted to claim a username from an account that looks inactive for 4 years, to match up with a domain name I own, and other handles I already have on Instagram and Facebook. Unfortunately I didn’t have any luck – they responded the following day with this:
“Thanks for reaching out.
The username you’re requesting is inactive, or suspended. We can’t release the username to be used on another account at this time.
We appreciate your understanding.”
😐
Sorry to hear this didn’t work for you. It sounds like there’s some other issue that’s preventing them from releasing it to you. Although this approach I outlined has worked for many people (see other comments), unfortunately, it doesn’t work for everyone.
I actually had success with this on my first attempt and Twitter said they would release the inactive account to me. But then they didn’t actually follow through after I followed the instructions in the email! All subsequent attempts have been rebuffed!
Too bad things didn’t end up working out even though it seemed the initial process outlined here worked for you. Unfortunately, the process can be hit or miss. Keep trying!
Seems like I might be in a similar situation. Took a month, but finally got a positive response to my brand impersonation case. Responded to the email within 12 hours, and it’s been three days with no reply or change. Will update if anything happens.
Sounds like you had a positive initial response, which is promising. Definitely worth following up, and hopefully, this will work out for you!
So, I ended up replying to the email again after three days once again stating the account I wished for the username to be transferred to, but to no avail. I was told the case had been closed. Last successful attempt took over a month to get a response. I’ve tried numerous times since then with no luck. Yesterday I tried the brand impersonation claim once again, and used the exact same wording from the only request that got somewhere (the one described above), and within twenty minutes I got a message that the account could be released as it was inactive. However, it’s now been over 20 hours since I replied to that message with no action taken/response. Still hoping the transfer goes through this time. Fingers crossed.
Success! For anyone wondering, I chose the brand impersonation option. No documents were requested/sent. Here is the email I sent:
“Hello,
This is my second email in an attempt to obtain @namehere. I am the owner of a product, specifically, an online video game, named namehere. I would like ownership over @namehere on Twitter to represent our brand, however, it would seem that that is not currently possible. The offending account, which can be found at @namehere, or twitter.com/namehere, has caused confusion for those who are interested in our product. We have been contacted on multiple occasions by potential customers and members of our community due to the exact match of the account name and the account @username with the name of our game. Additionally, due to the lack of activity on the account, we do not believe anyone would be at a loss if this issue were resolved. Information about the game can be found at our website, _.io. Thank you.
Cheers,
FirstName LastName”
Thanks so much Joseph, your blog post resulted in me getting the Christmas present I was hoping for!
Manny, I’m really happy to hear this worked for you! Seems like your persistence and patience here really paid off.
I have sent them 9 reports but they are not replying anything, I think it’s not gonna work for me.
what should i do if the username i want is going to be for my gaming/ streaming? i want it so it will match my twitch and youtube…
I don’t think the process necessarily needs to be different although I’d imagine you would be making a much tougher case if you’re trying to get a username that’s not your actual name or company name.
Hey Joseph- Thanks for writing this and most importantly being detailed about it. I am happy that in 2019 you had success with that request and I totally feel you on the underscore leading or trailing in the username. In fact I made the switch from _rahulsarraf to rahulsrrf, considering that from an SEO standpoint the abbreviated last name would be still better than the underscored one.
Also to confirm, yes, you can submit and impersonation request to Twitter even if you’re not a current account holder. My brother went it and in his case, someone was actually impersonating his image, website and personality. What drives people to do that? Beats me.. but thanks for being a great resource.
Rahul, great to hear this process worked for your brother. Sounds like you also made a solid decision dropping that underscore. Thanks for sharing your own experiences here!
It’s a pity you don’t have a donate button! I’d most certainly donate to this outstanding blog!
I suppose for now i’ll settle for bookmarking and adding your RSS
feed to my Google account. I look forward to new updates and will talk about this website with my Facebook group.
Chat soon!
Joni, glad to hear you’re enjoying my blog so much. Thanks for passing it along to your FB group too.
Hi, joseph
I’ve tried but twitter response:
Thanks for reaching out. We’ve reviewed the account, and didn’t find a violation of our impersonation policy.
Please note, any documents you may have uploaded will be deleted.
We’re unable to assist with individual requests for inactive or suspended usernames. Please consider choosing an available variation of the username you want for your Twitter account.
Thanks,
Twitter
and the username that I want is inactive for a long time, so is there any chance?
Thanks
Honestly, I’m not sure. These things are done by a case-by-case basis from what I’ve seen, even just anecdotally in this comment chain. Unfortunately, we’re all at the mercy of Twitter on this.
Hello Joseph,
It seems that I have an opportunity just like you had.
But I have a question first, I realized that my name is not quite easy to speak, and in order to have a better username and overall online presence, I created a pseudonym (pythonbyte – I’m a developer). For this username, I have the same opportunity that you have.
Do you think that I still need to go on with my real name or it will be better to have a username with a pseudonym?
Eduardo, this question about whether to use your real name vs. a pseudonym comes up a lot, so it’s a common issue to wrestle with. In most situations, I’d recommend simply using @FirstLast even if your name is a bit tricky to pronounce or spell. The reason for this is that people are more likely to Google your actual name instead of an obscure pseudonym they may or may not be aware you’re even using. Also, anything you do can sit under the umbrella of your name.
However, I can also see the argument for using a pseudonym, especially if you can secure that username across all social platforms as long as you use it consistently as it becomes part of your personal “brand.” Just be aware that this may affect how easily discoverable you are if people aren’t familiar with your pseudonym.
Looking at the comments, I can see that this seems to vary widely — there must be an element of judgment on the part of whichever Twitter employee responds to your case. In my case, I got the following language:
“It appears you’re requesting a username rather than reporting an account that’s impersonating you. This form is only for reporting accounts that violate our impersonation policy.”
A statement that’s hard to refute. Which makes it too bad that the judgment didn’t fall my way, as it would be hard to claim that this person who happens to share my fairly common name is impersonating me. Ah, well.
Benjamin, I definitely have observed there is an element of subjective judgment with these sorts of requests. I know it can be frustrating to be unable to claim her user name, especially if it is one that doesn’t seem to be in activities. Trust me, I’ve been there. All I can suggest is that you try again in the future, and perhaps you’ll have a different outcome. Although, there are no guarantees of course!
Hi Joseph, thanks for this helpful blog! I got quite far in just a couple hours but unfortunately, instead of releasing the username for me to use, they have suspended the impersonator’s twitter account and now, apparently, suspended account handles cannot be used as they are still deemed ‘in use’? Do you have any advice on how I can go about securing this twitter handle even though I can still see their account and is says ‘suspended’?
Thanks!
Aaniya 🙂
Unfortunately, what I’ve outlined above doesn’t really apply to suspended accounts. So unfortunately, I’m not able to advise on next steps. I know how frustrating this can be!
It worked! In fact, Twitter responded within 2 hours, and now we have the Twitter handle that matches our company domain. It probably helped that the previous Twitter user hadn’t logged in since 2010 and had zero tweets or follows. Woohoo!
DW, that’s great to hear the process I outlined worked for you!
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
bro, you use the brand impersonator request or the person impersonator request to get your username in twitter? what info did you send?
Please refer to the article for all the info I sent to Twitter. As I mentioned, I used the person impersonator request myself.
This just worked for me yesterday. I owned the .com of a brand launching. @ourbrand was being squatted on since 2013, inactive account. zero followers or tweets. Twitter just handed it over after a nice request made on the imposter form (i didn’t know where else to start). I verified ID and domain ownership. no trademark needed.
That’s great to hear! Glad this process worked for you.
Hello Joseph. I know this may be a really stupid question, but I think I should just ask it anyways. I was wondering because the username I want doesn’t have my name in it, should I still submit photos of my Driver’s License/Passport or should I submit photos to prove I own the domain/website listed. I did also want to let you know I own a top level domain that corresponds with the username I want and that I already tried this once before and it failed. Thank you for taking the time out of your day to read this.
Robert, this is probably a question for Twitter, but I’d imagine–I’m just taking my best guess here–is that any supporting documentation should relate in some way to the username you are trying to get. If you own the domain or website, that should help in theory, but the process isn’t guaranteed I’m afraid.
So right after I submitted my second case, I got this email:
Hello,
Thanks for your report. It looks like this is connected with your original case, so we’ve added it to that first report.
We’ll continue our review with this information.
If you have more details you think we should know, please respond to this email to send them our way. We appreciate your help!
Thanks,
Twitter
I suppose all you can do is wait, but if you feel like you have any further supporting information, by all means, send it their way!
Well it’s been three weeks without response, I am starting to wonder if they have even looked at my case.
Hard to say. You may want to give it some time. If they don’t respond in a couple more months, perhaps try again.
OMG it worked! It only took me a few years. Finally! I’m a writer with a common given name, and I’ve been trying to get all my socials under a specific pseudonym @FirstLast for at least three years. I own the .com, and I have socials for this handle @IG, tiktok, google, microsoft, Medium, and teespring. I also own an LLC under this name.
This twitter handle been beensuspended for 5+ years. I have referred back to the article several times as I made various Twitter requests for this username. Every time I would try for the handle, I would get rejected. I don’t know the inner workings at twitter, but I believe that a key part of acquiring this handle was getting it unsuspended.
If the handle you want is suspended, reversing that suspension is your first goal. Once the handle was unsuspended, twitter was responsive to my request for the handle because it was inactive (0 tweets/follows/followers), and I had the requisite docs to back up my intended usage.
I think what helped me was having (1) a valid business name linked to my real name via ID/passport (2) owning the dot com for this business name (3) the other handle was inactive and unsuspended**by my request** (4) proof that I have been doing business using this name: business card/emails. (5) I was polite and professional.
Good luck, everyone!
Hope all’s going well there in Missouri! I’m originally from Springfield, Missouri myself! Small world. So glad this worked for you eventually, and I appreciate you passing along your tips to others too!
Funny, I had no idea you were from Springfield. Small world. One of my good friends, Sommer, graduated from Kickapoo. She’s always raving about Springfield Cashew Chicken, which apparently originated there.
Thanks, again, for providing this useful info. I can’t believe it finally worked!
Indeed! I also went to Kickapoo! Haha! And I have very fond memories of cashew chicken from Springfield, which I’ve only ever found in Springfield. Again, happy to hear my suggested process worked for you.
Well I got a little closer. Yesterday I submitted another request and this time I submitted it using the brand impersonation option. My website isn’t really a brand, but its close to enough to be convincing. Well about an hour after I sent the request, they said they needed more evidence like agent’s agreement, power of attorney, documentation showing parental/guardianship rights of minor children, or a business card. I decided to make a fake business card and to link an email with the website’s domain in it to my account. However after I submitted the additional information, they responded with this:
Hello,
Thanks for reaching out.
The username you’re requesting is inactive, or suspended. We can’t release the username to be used on another account at this time.
We appreciate your understanding.
Thanks,
Twitter
Maybe someday they will be able to release the inactive username to me, but until then I guess I will just have to wait and occasionally submit a request.
I see. Yeah, this sounds like this falls into a grey area here in terms of the likelihood of success because your website isn’t truly a brand, and Twitter can probably ascertain this. Always worth a try though!
My situation is weird because for me, the account I want gives a this page doesn’t exist error. It’s been doing that for the past 3 years. The problem is the username is under 5 letters and Twitter doesn’t officially let users register those usernames to an account. Do you think that it will work or am I better off just finding a different username.
According to this Twitter page, “Your username must be more than 4 characters long and can be up to 15 characters or less.” I’d recommend trying to find a username that adheres to these guidelines.
hello, I am attempting to get a twitter handle i want that has been inactive for years and has recently been randomly suspended. I’ve sent the report but they responded and I don’t actually know what they are asking for me to do.
For security reasons, we need this report to be sent from an email address at your company’s domain. You can refile your support request using an email from your organization.
Once the request has been filed, we’ll review the report from that email address. We appreciate your help!
Thanks, Twitter.
I believe they want you to respond from an email that matches the twitter name you’re hoping to get. For example, if you wanted @namexyz on Twitter, they want you to email your request directly from an @namexyz email (e.g., paul@namexyz.com), likely to “prove” you own the domain that matches the desired Twitter name–just one additional piece of evidence to support your case.
Dear J,
I tried it. Here is my response
Hello,
Thanks for reaching out.
The username you’re requesting is inactive, or suspended. We can’t release the username to be used on another account at this time.
We appreciate your understanding.
Thanks,
Twitter
I am surprised because the said account (using my business domain) hasn’t made a single tweet since 2012 it was created and has only 2 followers
Unfortunately, it seems this can be one potential result of requesting a username even if it’s not been in use for a long time. It’s hard to sometimes understand why certain usernames get released while others do not. I had a similar struggle with securing my desired username for another account even though the user who had it never really used it.
It is frustrating. I will give them time before I retry. Not giving up
I know how frustrating this exercise can be. I’ve not had luck securing my username on other platforms, and you really never know how these things ultimately work out.