Generically, yes. It's a "thing" fairly broadly, but only in specific churches. It's hardly de rigeur but it also isn't uncomon. I've never understood the appeal, tbh.

As a former bell choir director, and as a member of a small bell quartet in College, I love the "instrument". It's fantastic for community outreach, and for fun, but its harder to use properly as a liturgical instrument (especially since the a-peal of the bells is that they are fun to watch when they are played).

Most modern arrangements of bell-only music are VERY showy. However, using them sparingly as a decoration with chant, choral anthems, and hymns (from an unseen place) is one definite way they can be used without causing spectacle.

Personally, I associate bell choirs with Protestant music ministries, and they feel a little faddish. More impersonally, I think bells traditionally have defined roles and places in mass. This isn't something I would do, except perhaps for non-liturgical carolling (and assuming we already had bells and didn't have to buy anything).

I don’t mind handbells. I just don’t want them at during Mass.

Tintinnabulum: The Liturgical Use of Handbells/ Richard Proulx/ GIA.
This was kind of a "thing" in the late 70s.
There are some Proulx compositions in the GIA catalog.

I grew up at a parish that had a handbell choir, and I now work at a parish that has a handbell choir, which I direct.

The handbell choir joins the adult choir for several high feasts (Christmas midnight Mass, Easter, Ascension or Pentecost, Corpus Christi) and also joins in our annual Choral Stations of the Cross during Lent. We have a couple other dates in there to keep us busy (this season, Nov. 9 for Lateran Basilica and the last Sunday of OT before Ash Wednesday). We have also played at our diocesan cathedral for their permanent diaconate ordinations.

I inherited the handbell choir, which has three octaves of handbells and three octaves of choirchimes (kind of like a xylophone taken apart, with a mallet attached to each note) when I started. They are functional (helping us have a full half-hour of music before Christmas and Easter, when people come very early) and add a special touch to these Masses.

Handbells have a surprising amount of textures and techniques, and the choirchimes add a mellow sound to contrast the bright bells. I was surprised with how much fun they are to play and how many different sounds you can create. Used properly, they add an extra special touch to a Mass.

Before I was there, they had to set up in front, as we have a very tight space in our church (no loft) and it was the only place they could set up. Aside from being distracting, it was uncomfortable for all involved, so I asked for a parishioner's help in creating tables that could be set up in the pews near the choir section (in front, to the right of the altar) -- far less visible and far more comfortable. I can conduct an organist or pianist, the adult choir, and the handbell choir simultaneously without too much difficulty.

As much as GIA gets maligned here, and often deservedly so, they have the most suitable pieces for use at (or really: before) a Catholic Mass and also have bell parts for a number of standard hymns. I buy new pieces almost exclusively from them.

I don't know if I would have started a handbell choir had there not been one when I arrived (the costs of starting one aren't small, so you pretty much need some donors to foot the bill), but it's made me a more versatile musician and rehearsals are really a high point of my week. I think it'd be worth it for those of you who don't have such a choir to try it sometime and see what it's like.

Used properly, they add an extra special touch to a Mass.

The Mass doesn’t need this. God is literally made present on the altar at every single Mass. No amount of handbells can add to that to give it an extra special touch. The more I talk to people at my parish, the more I am convinced that either people don’t believe this, they don’t know it, or this do know and just don’t care.

That’s iconoclast nonsense.

I realize that people who like handbells are often at church for the feels more than the dogmatic theology, but if you follow your reasoning through, you’re gonna wipe out music entirely.

Which purpose is what?

If our offering has no value, then why do we go to mass? Of course a pontifical mass is more special than a simple low mass, and a mass with full choirs in a cathedral is more special than a simple weekday mass with a couple retirees in attendance.
This isn’t a statement on the theological or legal significance of the mass as sacrifice, Christ offered once for all and represented on the altar, etc. It’s just a common sense understanding of time, treasure, and human interaction. After all, we will be judged on how we stewarded our talents: how we grew what we were given and how we offered it to God.

What I don't appreciate is that in a long, detailed response answering the OP with my experiences, that a tiny sliver of it was blockquoted and taken in a way I clearly didn't intend in service of an ax to grind.

I'm sorry if I sound grouchy, but this is what makes me grouchy.

One thing to be considered is that percussion instruments are not supposed to be used at Mass,

Amen to that. Today I couldn’t stay focused during the Offertory long enough to make my offering/Mass intentions today because I kept getting distracted by the rumbling of the timpani in the background. So irritating and distracting. If you’re going to play timpani, play it!

. . . der Zimbelstern ist verboten . . .

Not enough organists so we need pianos?

What's interesting is how back when there were plenty of organists and organs, churches abandoned them in favor of the new fad of pianos and guitars. As organists were thereby sidelined in many cases, there was much less incentive for people to study it. Why study what is now being shunned? Now after using pianos and guitars to get rid of organs, we're really going to use the lack of organs and organists as a reason not to use them? This is a created problem. Not acceptable. Churches "find" the money for all sorts of ridiculous things. If they really want something, they can find a way.