Can you change your username in Skype?

Are you looking to change your username in Skype after having an account for a long time? Maybe your old username is associated to something you want to leave behind? Or maybe you want to change your username for any other reason? Well, after experiencing this issue, I can help you solve this and let you know the consequences of this choice.

First, you should know that the answer to this question is NO. You cannot change your username. You can only change the name displayed on your profile, but not your username. You have to create a new account from scratch. After Skype was acquired by Microsoft, you can create a new account using your email or phone number. The old times when you could choose a username when creating your account are gone.

If you have a hotmail, outlook or yahoo.com email account, your username will be the first part of your email. For example, if your account is johndoe@outlook.com, your username will be “johndoe.” However, if you have an email account with any other provider, your username will be “live:” + the first part of your email account. For example, if your email is “joan67@aol.com”, your username will be then “live:joan67.” People will be able to look for you in Skype using this username.

But now that we have a new account… what happens with our old contacts? Well, you can transfer your contacts from your old account to your new one, and there’s a Skype support page that explains how to do this (please visit it here), but you have to be aware that your contacts in your new account will not be active. You will have the complete list of your old contacts, but you’ll have to invite them again to join you in Skype. In my experience, I had to invite again each one of them and some apparently received my invitation and others not, so I had to send several invitations to some of them.

In other words, if you are planning to change your username, you must be aware than you’ll have to create a new account and invite again each one of your old contacts. Unfortunately, there is no other way out for the moment.