.hello
Is .hello a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
.hello is contested: 5 applications for it are on ICANN’s Reveal Day list, as of 7 October 2026. They are Intercap, EchoStar, Aruba, Name Space and Link Freedom Group. XServer named .hello as a backup string for its .key application. ICANN deactivated it, because another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup. iRegistry named .hello as a backup string for its .con application. ICANN deactivated it, because another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup.
Who is applying, and what they run today
Three of the five already run TLDs, 568K names between them. Link Freedom Group and Name Space run none.
Will names sell?
A warm, universally understood word that suits greetings and marketing pages, but few serious projects would make it their main address.
Last round the AI scored the 2012 strings blind to their fate. Strings it scored 60 or more hold a median 27,168 names today; those under 30, a median of 30. .hello’s closest 2012 strings hold .wow 2, .lol 1.13M and .smile 2.
The nearest 2012 strings, and how many names each holds today
The closest 2012 string, .wow, held 2 names, June 2026. .lol held 1,126,763; .smile held 2. Chosen by AI from every string in the 2012 round, without being told what happened to any of them.
Same bet exactly: a short, universally understood English interjection with no category boundary, sold to any registrant on warmth and memorability rather than on fitting an industry, which means its value depends entirely on registrars making an expressive word feel worth owning.
Also an interjection played as an open, tone-driven string that anybody can put identity on, but its register is jokey internet slang rather than the business-safe, brand-friendly greeting a .hello buyer wants.
Same play for a warm, non-categorical human-expression word aimed at friendly consumer and personal identities, though it is a noun/verb describing a feeling rather than a direct address to a reader.
Where they meet elsewhere
Link Freedom Group and Intercap face each other in 31 contests this round, .hello included.
- Link Freedom Group × Intercap
- Link Freedom Group × Aruba
- Link Freedom Group × XServer
- Link Freedom Group × EchoStar
- Link Freedom Group × Name Space
marketers, personal-site owners, and consumer brands wanting a friendly, greeting-style address for campaigns, welcome pages, or playful side projects.
What a .hello domain is
.hello is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, in our Culture category. 5 applications for it are on ICANN’s Reveal Day list.
Is the .hello domain extension real yet?
.hello is not yet a domain extension you can register: nothing resolves under it, and no registrar sells names in it. It is a string applicants have put forward in the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, the process that decides whether it becomes one.
When can you buy a .hello domain?
You can’t yet. A .hello name can only be registered once the string is delegated (added to the DNS root) and its registry opens. Last round's closest parallel to .hello was .wow, delegated on 26 September 2016.
Is .hello a real TLD?
Not yet. .hello is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because .hello is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list of applied-for strings. Every entry on this page links to its source.
- 2 applicants · first recordedICANN
- 2 applicants · first recordedICANN
- 3 applicants · now confirmedICANN
- Aruba · first recordedDomain Name Wire (Andrew Allemann), quoting Aruba S.p.A.
- Name Space · first recordedDomain Name Wire
- Link Freedom Group · first recordedLink Freedom Group
The source’s 5 linesHide the lines
APEC2611T-T61164 · Aruba PEC S.P.A. · primary · contention set 2026-107 EDCL2689T-T42826 · ECHO Domain Co L.L.C. · primary · contention set 2026-107 IRI2679T-T88324 · Intercap Registry Inc. · primary · contention set 2026-107 LFGL2683T-T89824 · Link Freedom Group Ltd · primary · contention set 2026-107 NSL2674T-T80030 · NAME SPACE LLC · primary · contention set 2026-107
The source’s 7 linesHide the lines
APEC2611T-T61164 · Aruba PEC S.P.A. · primary · contention set 2026-107 EDCL2689T-T42826 · ECHO Domain Co L.L.C. · primary · contention set 2026-107 IG2663T-T46205 · iRegistry GmbH · replacement string of .con · Deactivated IRI2679T-T88324 · Intercap Registry Inc. · primary · contention set 2026-107 LFGL2683T-T89824 · Link Freedom Group Ltd · primary · contention set 2026-107 NSL2674T-T80030 · NAME SPACE LLC · primary · contention set 2026-107 XI2694T-T18057 · XRegistry Incorporated · replacement string of .key · Deactivated
“Aruba S.p.A., which operates the .cloud top level domain, is expanding its domain portfolio. The company told Domain Name Wire that it applied for 39 top level domains in this year's new TLD round. That number includes replacement strings. [...] The company applied for the following strings as primary or replacement: aid, all, ask, beta, bit, bnb, cart, ciao, daily, demo, easy, fix, gaming, gen, genius, gym, happy, hello, hola, human, kit, lab, mars, max, moon, omg, pec, pop, rem, roma, sign, sito, super, tag, tex, vps, yes, zen, zzz”Domain Name Wire (Andrew Allemann), quoting Aruba S.p.A.
“We are thrilled by the opportunity to help expand the domain name space with innovative new alternatives.”Domain Name Wire
“.hello · Culture · “Start every connection with a smile.””Link Freedom Group
- Band chosen: usable but limited (30-49), at its lower edge. The string is one of the most widely recognized positive words across languages, which gives it broad registration appeal on price and real utility for phrase-style names (say.hello, from.hello) and campaign landing pages. It is not in the vanity/joke band below because the word's warmth and universality support genuine, repeatable marketing use rather than one-off novelty. It is not in the strong-niche band above because there is no identifiable buyer group for whom a .hello address is a natural primary identity; a business or product introducing itself on .hello reads as a slogan, not a home, so adoption would need explaining every time and the aftermarket is likely to stay thin. By analogy (flagged as analogy) to other emotive dictionary-word TLDs such as .fun, .love, and .lol, demand for feel-good strings has tended to concentrate in low-price registrations and short-lived campaign use rather than sustained primary-identity adoption, and renewal-driven value has been the exception rather than the pattern. The verified facts show the applicant filed a very large portfolio in the 2026 round and lists this string under Culture with a greeting-themed tagline, consistent with a broad-catalog play rather than a community-anchored launch; that positioning informs adoption likelihood but does not change the string's intrinsic ceiling. Main market uncertainty: whether phrase-style left-of-dot naming (say.hello) becomes a durable consumer convention over the next 5 years or remains a novelty, since that convention is the main path by which this TLD could climb into the strong-niche band.