Google is beta testing a feature called Handle Swapping inside Search Profiles, according to a report from Search Engine Roundtable. The feature lets a small group of volunteer creators and publishers replace their public Search Profile handle with a verified handle from another linked platform. French blogger Damien Andell, who said he was invited into the test, published a screenshot of an email from Google describing the early access requirements: an existing Search profile, multiple verified linked accounts, and a willingness to report feedback. Google told testers a wider launch is coming “very soon,” per Andell’s account, but the company has not confirmed that timeline itself.
The scale here is small: one profile, several linked accounts, a handful of volunteers.
A Search Profile handle is the identifier Google uses to represent a person across its surfaces, so making it swappable to a verified handle elsewhere is a step toward portable identity rather than platform-owned identity. For anyone building an author entity, handle consistency across verified platforms is what makes a feature like this work at all.
According to Barry Schwartz’s report for Search Engine Roundtable, published Tuesday, August 4, 2026.
