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Bjorn

Handlescout - Get notified when a Twitter username becomes available

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Handlescout is a free service that notifies you by email when your desired Twitter username becomes available.

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Bjorn
Maker
Hello everyone! 😡 Problem: I created Handlescout after personal frustrations with unavailable Twitter usernames. 😌 Solution: Handlescout automates the process of checking Twitter username availability and notifies you by email when the availability status changes. 💸 Price: FREE! From idea to launch, the project took about 10 days to complete (after work hours). If you're interested in the technical stack, you can find out more about it here: https://stackshare.io/byteboomer... Thank you for checking out Handlescout!
Bjorn
Maker
UPDATE: 📈 Current statistics, +- 12 hours after launch: 👪 + 1300 users 🔭 + 3000 tracked handles 😻 + 200 @ProductHunt votes 💕 I'm a happy toucan!
Amrith
@krolsbjorn But will they ever become available 🤔 Twitter has a policy that guards these inactive accounts and getting them without having a registered trademark is close to impossible (believe me, I've tried) 🙃 So to be clear, this just keeps checking to see if the person has changed their username and notifies you if they do? Nothing to do with checking inactivity and how to apply for a request etc?
Bjorn
Maker
Hello @amrith, I know the pain, been there 😞 You correctly identified the *current* scope of the project, which to me seemed like an obvious starting point, but I'm very much open to extending the product to further increase it's success rate.
Amrith
@krolsbjorn I hope you do! But I'm not sure how you'd identify and prove inactivity based on if a user as logged in or not, that's not publicly available 🤔
Moe Amaya
@amrith @krolsbjorn if you were to scope creep the project yourself, what were some ideas that popped up along the way?
Bjorn
Maker
@moeamaya Thank you for your question 👍 Couple of ideas I considered: convincing account owners to give up their name, assist username claims via trademark laws, retrieval of usernames attached to expired domains, auto-claim the account and squat it on behalf of the user, auto suggest additional usernames based on the submitted one, etc...
Moe Amaya
@krolsbjorn I like it! It's a similar model to park.io who grabs expired .io domains and resells them (doing $1M/yr btw). If you could automate reaching out to old handles to give them up (and maybe with a lil cash), this could be super lucrative!! Really into this idea a lot now 👏
Ethan
Need something like this for domain names!
Amrith
@booligoosh There are plenty! DomainWatch by @benjam1n is my favorite 💯
Isiah Hill
Do you plan on keeping this service free forever?
Bjorn
Maker
@isiahhill The automated checks at at their current frequency (1 per hour) will always be free 👍
Guillaume Bardet
Well done Bjorn! Since this is focused on Twitter, have you considered registering with Twitter and receiving a tweet instead?
Bjorn
Maker
@guillaumebardet Thank you 👊 I did, and it's not out of the question, but I had some doubts because A) sending PMs on Twitter programmatically doesn't work when people turn them off and B) publicly broadcasting updates might not be suitable for those who want to keep their desired names as secret as possible. I am however considering creating a Twitter account where I'd broadcast all status updates for 3-letter accounts that are not yet registered by users 🤔. Cheers!
Guillaume Bardet
@krolsbjorn Oh right, that makes sense. That could be interesting as well! Have you considered adding additional social networks in the future?
Bjorn
Maker
@guillaumebardet We are exploring new methods and other networks 🗺 Got a favorite network in a mind?
Guillaume Bardet
@krolsbjorn Yup, twitter so that's out of the way :) In terms of demand I would probably guess IG next but I have no data to back that up lol.
joshua bradley
The actual genius of Handlescout may actually be the expiring "magic link" for totally frictionless (and perfectly described) on-boarding.
Bjorn
Maker
@airjoshb I'm extremely pleased to hear that since it's probably going to be my next product 😁
@ChuckReynolds
This sounds great but how often does Twitter even release names anymore? Anyway - signed up; I don't expect to hear anything ever. :)
Bjorn
Maker
@chuckreynolds Thank you! But if/when they do, you'll have an advantage 🏁 Also, don't rule out the possibility that the current owner forfaits it!
@ChuckReynolds
@krolsbjorn also, IF you know... IF an account opens... can/will they merge accounts/followers/etc to new username or is it just a new wiped account?
Bjorn
Maker
@chuckreynolds I know the feeling 😤 We are exploring other solutions to this problem!
Jamie McCue
This product may become really useful come December when Twitter starts to free up inactive user names. https://www.theverge.com/2019/11...
Tem Nugmanov
@_architexture_ I was about to post this :) @byteboomers hsa there been an uptick in users?
Antoine Plu

Definitely something I wanted to avoid checking by myself.

Thank you! 🙏🏻❤️

Pros:

Easy to use, quick sign-up, and solving a real problem! 🙏🏻

Cons:

This can take years sometimes, will the service stay up that long?

Christiam Mendoza
Great idea! Already listed 4 I'll like to have, BUT... 🤔 > How can we tell it'll ever work? > Has anyone got a notification that a particular username is available? > Are the creators tricking us into signing up? 🤣 Guess I'll have to wait or check the stack 🔎
Tapas
What is the privacy policy? What ensures that you will not get it for yourself? Should not one rather be checking it themselves if this concern is not addressed?
Vincent Déniel
@doctapas Exactly my concerns. The app could gather data on what handles are coveted the most and try to get them first and attempt to resell them later. I think people are giving their trust too fast to new products that come out...
Ian Mackay
There is a another simple and free site that lets you add a username and when it becomes available will email you – useful to grab expired usernames (works on twitter and instagram): http://handlechecker.com
Allison Kunz

Took an annoying task off my list, much appreciated

Pros:

Smooth experience

Cons:

None so far?

Coda Max
Does this still work? My handle says availability unknown.
Bjorn
Maker
@codamax Hello! It does (it can take some time until we run the first check on your handle)