When Facebook first released the username tool a few weeks ago, they said that you better like the username that you select because you’ll never be able to change it. Now Facebook is modifying that policy to allow users to “change their username once”. It’s pretty easy to switch your username. All you need to do is visit your account settings page and click on “Change” next to the “Username” setting. Facebook will then let you know if the new username you’d like is available.
So why is Facebook letting users change their username now? Facebook hasn’t made an official announcement but as far as we know, one of the main reasons was that a number of people thought it would be funny to steal their friends names (like this facesquatter). There are also many people that didn’t want the names they came up with.
My guess is that Facebook has received countless emails about username issues so to make things easier, they’ve gone ahead and let users make a one-time change. I’m not quite sure why they don’t let users change it at will but my best guess is that these usernames will be tied to other products later down the road. Check out Read/Write/Web for more on this new policy.
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I suspected this might happen, however I didn't see it coming so soon after the initial launch.
A nice way for many users to save 'face'.
Comment by Stew Brennand — July 23, 2009 @ 7:13 am
good
Comment by Daniel Adams — July 23, 2009 @ 7:29 am
This was inevitable, if only to deal with the fact that people's real names change all the time (due to marriage, divorce, etc.)
Comment by Scott Raymond — July 23, 2009 @ 7:37 am
I'm glad to see this.
Comment by Ally — July 23, 2009 @ 7:59 am
Really good. But as soon as everybody will know this, there will probably be a new wave of facesquatting…
The remedy could be worse than the disease.
Comment by Pingolin — July 23, 2009 @ 8:19 am
Don't think you can do it for pages though.
Comment by Matt Mantey — July 23, 2009 @ 10:30 am
I noticed on my notification that you can only make the change once. Hmmm…
Comment by Ally — July 23, 2009 @ 12:52 pm
all love u!!!
Comment by Nam còi — July 23, 2009 @ 5:56 pm
I think purely if it lets you change it once per 6-12 months then that'll be fine.
Comment by Chris — July 23, 2009 @ 11:48 pm
In the future, Facebook may be allows users change their username once again
Comment by Hoang Le Minh — July 24, 2009 @ 12:08 am
It is good that facebook let users to change their username once.
Comment by Facebook App Develop — July 27, 2009 @ 4:01 am
I have tried to change my username, which is available, since Sat. 7/25 and this is the message I've gotten to date: Something went wrong. We're working on getting it fixed as soon as we can.
Comment by Dora — July 28, 2009 @ 4:56 am
why can not I change my real name?
Comment by @ImamPutraCikal — May 9, 2011 @ 2:10 pm
obviously,i cannot change my username. what should i do…??
Comment by ceraceri — October 19, 2011 @ 9:24 am