Google/Youtube account basics questions

[metoober]

Could I trouble the community to clarify a few basics about Google & Youtube accounts? True or false:

1. You can only sign in to Youtube with a Google account. You can't just create a Youtube account with its own credentials. If you sign up to Youtube from Youtube, it will create a Google account for you whether you want it or not.

2. Google removed the requirement some years ago now that you use your real name on your Google account.

3. You can only comment on videos if you have also created a Youtube Channel. People who are jut signed in to Youtube with their Google accounts, but haven't created channel, cannot comment on videos. A lot of people want to comment but not upload, so they just create a personal channel and leave it empty, or maybe add a few playlists.

4. If you create a personal YT channel, the name of the channel will automatically be set to the name on your Google account and you cannot change it.

5. You can have a channel with a name different from your Google account by creating a Brand channel.

6. But since Google removed the requirement to use your real name, that's why you see comments from people with obviously not real names but who probably didn't create a brand channel.

Thank you.

 

[metoober]

Did I ask in the wrong sub-forum?

 

[Hulio]

4. False. You can change your channel name at any time.

5. Not sure what you mean by "creating a brand channel", but your channel name can be anything within reason. Does a Google account even have a name? Isn't it just a personal profile with your email as a name? I genuinely don't know that : )

6. All comments show the channel's name, not a person's real name. Again, you mention a "brand channel". What's the difference between a brand channel and a regular channel? What is a brand channel?

 

[metoober]

4. False. You can change your channel name at any time.

Great, thanks. Your reply prompted me to search for a tutorial on this, found this one:

According to this, yes, a personal channel can have any name and you can change it, but the name has to be two words to complete the "first" and "last" name fields. And he says, towards the end of the video, that inputting things that are clearly not names can lead to issues - wonder what that is. But what I get from this video is that to change the name of a personal YT account/channel, you literally are chnging the names on your Google account.

5. Not sure what you mean by "creating a brand channel", but your channel name can be anything within reason. Does a Google account even have a name? Isn't it just a personal profile with your email as a name? I genuinely don't know that : )

A Brand Account is a YT account that can have any kind of name - one word, a whole phrase, whatever - regardless of the name on the Google account that owns it. Plus, you can input other people's log-in info to allow them to sign in to the YT account as managers, without having to give them your own Google account info. Here's another video from the same guy on that:

6. All comments show the channel's name, not a person's real name.

Of course, cool. Thanks.

So, yeah, what I get from these replies and the videos, is:
- your Google account has the name you input as First and Last.
- When you create a YT personal account, it will automatically use your Google account names as the channel name. A personal channel always has the same two-word name - First and Last - as the Google account that owns it.
- You can change these names, but that will change both your YT channel name and your Google account names.
- And you can, in theory, change it to whatever you like, there is no longer a requirement to use your real name, but using words that are clearly not real names may cause issues with YT, although we don't know what they might be.
- yes, you can only comment if you have a channel, and comments are identified by channel name - which is your Google account name if you have a personal channel

 

[Hulio]

Great, I don't know much about this... I'm still confused by the merging of Youtube with Google accounts. One thing I do know, regardless of what they may say, is that very few Youtube channels have anything resembling a real person's name. I don't see them having an issue with any name - unless it was vulgar or something...