YouTube Builds a Messaging Feature in its Native App

The Verge

YouTube is not an app you would usually expect people to have a conversation on. There's been a messaging feature on the service for a while, but it hasn't worked in quite the same way as this new feature. YouTube's messenger service works more like the inbuilt Facebook Messenger rather than the older PM feature that YouTube had. This update follows on after the recent addition of messaging and a friends list to Twitch which suggests video is becoming a lot more social.

This new feature is actually more of a reaction to Facebook, Snapchat and Amazon tackling video and becoming competition to YouTube. This has meant that they have to become more social and YouTube comments have never been the best way to do so. When YouTube tried to fix their comments section in the past, they didn't do a very good job and when they decoupled Google+, conversation went right back to the way it used to be. YouTube comments aren't the best place to be friendly or social anyway so this was an interesting step.

In the Messenger section of the app users can easily share videos as well as talk and share images or links. This makes it pretty much a general messenger service, but it simply works within the main parameters of YouTube. Unfortunately this feature isn't available for all users just yet. Those who do have the feature can invite other users into conversation which would provide them with the ability to converse with their other friends as well. Of course you can't converse with all users on there or you'd probably wind up being spammed a lot. You can only message users that you are friends with on there, so you might have to start befriending a few more users.

YouTube users who can access the feature will have a new tab within the app. This new service is one that will hopefully keep users on the app for hours at a time rather than popping in and out when they want to watch a video. By making it more social people will hopefully want to share videos more as well which would help create more traffic.

This is a pretty big update for YouTube and hopefully it will be one that will pay off.

Rosina Brooker

Rosina is a Songbird writer with a degree in Creative Writing. She's trying to focus on her novel on the side but is glad to be playing around with apps and writing about them in the mean time! Follow her @Songbird_Rosina

Contact us on Twitter, on Facebook, or leave your comments below. To find out about social media training or management why not take a look at our website for more info: TheSMFGroup.com