Managing profiles

Your account can hold several profiles — for example your personal profile, an organization you run, or a place you manage. The profile switcher at the top of the sidebar (just under the logo) shows which profile you’re currently acting as.

The profile switcher

The switcher shows the name and type of the profile you’re currently using (for example “John Smith — Personal · Pet Parent”). Everything in the dashboard — your pets, files, finances, store and more — is shown for that profile.

Switching profile

1. Click the switcher under the logo.
2. Pick a profile from the list, or choose Switch to another profile to search by name, handle, or account.

The list opens on your first 10 profiles, brands first. If you can act as more than that, the list scrolls inside the menu, and reaching the bottom loads the next 10. A line at the bottom such as 10 of 34 — scroll for more shows how many are left. If you manage a lot of profiles, Switch to another profile is usually quicker: it opens a search box that looks through all of them at once.

As soon as you pick a profile, a Switching profile… card covers the page. It shows the profile you are leaving and the one you are moving to (with its @handle), joined by an arrow, so you can see at a glance that the right switch is under way. The card stays up while United Pet Club changes over, then the dashboard reloads and shows the lock screen for the profile you just switched to.

If the switch cannot be completed (for example the connection drops), the card simply goes away and you stay on your current profile — nothing changes until a switch succeeds. The card names the new profile (Continue as …, with its @handle) and the email you are signed in with. Enter your PIN or password (or use a passkey / authenticator-app code) to confirm it’s you, and you’ll continue with the new profile — every page then loads data for that profile.

Note

Switching only changes which profile you’re acting as — you stay signed in as the same person, and your usual PIN, password, or passkey clears the lock. You can switch back at any time.

Adding or managing profiles

From the switcher menu you can also jump to your account to add a profile, change your account type, or open My account for the full set of profile and account settings.

Adding a profile

Profiles → Add Profile creates an organization, a place or a public persona that you own. Your personal profile is never created again — you already have it from signup.

1. Type — what the new profile is (and, for an organization, what kind).
2. Identity — its name, its own @handle and its address. Every profile has an address, so the profile can’t be created without one. Start typing and pick the address from the suggestions; if suggestions aren’t available, type the address and its two-letter country code (for example CA or US). An organization’s or a place’s address is shown on its page; a public persona’s stays private.
3. Contact — how people reach it.
4. Address — the address you gave is already here. Choose how precisely it’s shown, or add more (shipping, mailing…). This step can’t be skipped while the profile has no address.
5. Specializations (organizations), Team, then Finish to switch to the new profile.

Your @handle

Every profile has its own @handle, its address on United Pet Club (/accounts/<handle>). Handles are 5 to 60 characters of letters, numbers, dot and underscore, and can’t start or end with a dot.

Shorter handles are assigned by United Pet Club only. A handle of 1 to 4 characters, such as @AKC or @UPC, can’t be claimed or chosen by anyone. The United Pet Club team gives one only to a recognised organisation, such as a kennel club or a registry, when it asks and the request is approved. Contact support if your organisation needs one.

Capitals are for reading only. @EmadTorkzadeh and @emadtorkzadeh are the same handle: links and searches find the profile whichever way they are typed, and nobody else can take the other spelling.

To change a handle, open the profile under Profiles → All Profiles and choose Change Handle:

• A new handle can be chosen once every 6 months. Your old handle is held for 6 months before anyone else can claim it, and you can take it back during that time.
• Only the capitals (for example @emadtorkzadeh → @EmadTorkzadeh) can be changed at any time. Nothing is released and the 6-month wait doesn’t start.

Your abbreviation

An abbreviation is the short name shown on a profile’s avatar and in the profile switcher, such as your club’s or business’s initials (AKC, CKC). You can’t type one when you add or edit a profile: the United Pet Club team assigns abbreviations, and you can ask for one.

1. Open the profile under Profiles → All Profiles. The Abbreviation card is under Handle.
2. Type the abbreviation you want (up to 30 characters, shown exactly as you type it) and choose Request.
3. Pay the one-time fee of US$100 (Canadian accounts also pay GST/HST) in the payment window that opens. The fee is charged to the profile you’re acting as, so if you manage this profile from another one, choose Switch to @handle to pay first.
4. The card then says your request is with our team. We approve it, sometimes with corrected capitals, or decline it with a note. If we decline it, we refund the fee to the card you paid with.

Until you pay, you can change the requested abbreviation or Withdraw the request. If you already paid but the card still asks for the fee, choose I’ve paid, check again. Once paid, a request can’t be changed: wait for our answer. Each request is paid on its own, so asking for a different abbreviation later means a new request and a new fee.

When we answer, we tell you. A notice appears in your bell (under Focused) and we email the account that owns the profile. If we approved, the notice shows your new abbreviation. If we declined, it shows our note and tells you the fee is being refunded to the card you paid with. You’ll also get a separate refund receipt. Tap the notice or the email link to open the profile’s page.

Aliases: protect your brand and business

An alias is another @handle that leads to your profile. Someone who types @akc lands on @americankennelclub. Use aliases for the names people search for you by: your initials, a short name, a former business name or a common misspelling. While an alias is yours, no one else can use it to pose as you.

Open Dashboard → Handles to see your primary handle and your aliases, and to add or remove one.

Included aliases. Every profile gets 1 alias. An identity-verified profile gets 2 and a business-verified profile gets 5.

Adding more. Once you have used your included aliases, Add your alias shows the price of one more. It is a one-time payment, charged to the profile’s owner account, with sales tax added at checkout where it applies. When the payment goes through, the alias form opens so you can pick the handle. The alias is yours to keep: you can buy as many as you need, one at a time.

Removing an alias frees its place straight away, so you can claim a different handle in its place without paying again. The removed handle is held for 6 months before anyone else can claim it.

If the page says it couldn’t check your added aliases, refresh it. You won’t be asked to pay for a place you already own.