One thing you might have noticed YouTube creators do quite often is ask us to share their videos to reach more people. However, most of the time, we share YouTube video links through third-party messaging apps.
The video streaming giant announced that it"s testing a new feature to share videos within its app. It appears that YouTube is also planning to bring back its messaging feature, because why not? In a similar move, Spotify recently added direct messaging to its app.
"We"re experimenting with a new feature that makes it easy for you to share videos you love (long-form, Shorts and live streams) and have conversations about them directly on the YouTube mobile app," YouTube said.
Users included in YouTube"s experiment will also be able to message each other. The Google-owned company added that it"s a top-requested feature currently rolling out to people 18 years or older living in Ireland and Poland. These users will still be able to share videos through other apps they already use.
If you live in one of these countries, you must be signed into a YouTube channel to become eligible for the experiment, according to YouTube. Tap the notification bell icon in the YouTube app, then select the option to invite others to share videos.
You can share the invite link with other people, who will have the option to allow or decline the messages. You can start sharing a video with someone inside the YouTube app once they accept your invitation.
To share a video while watching content, use the existing share button in the YouTube app. Moreover, you can view your conversations under Messages after tapping the notification bell icon. You can also delete a conversation by long-pressing it, and block a user to stop getting messages from them.
YouTube had an instant messaging feature back in the day, launched in 2017 and later discontinued. There is no timeline for when the current video-sharing and messaging feature will be tested in other countries or whether it will be launched for everyone.
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