Following its soft launch in Canada earlier this year on both its Android and iOS apps, YouTube on Monday company started rolling out in-app messaging features globally, essentially allowing users to share videos with their friends and family within the app and have discussions over them. As users mostly share links from YouTube onto other social media platforms to discuss the videos, it seems like YouTube wants them to stay on its platform and discuss everything right there.
The company says that it has been testing the new feature since last year and after making improvements and adjustments on the basis of user feedback, it is finally ready to roll out this feature to users globally. “Starting today, you can share videos with your friends and family directly on YouTube. Not only can you share and receive videos in the app, you can also chat about them right on YouTube, reply with another video, invite others to the conversation, and more,” the company said in its blog post.
To start using the new in-app messaging features, all users will have to do is hit the Share button, and then choose to share it with your YouTube friends from your phone’s contact list. A direct link to invite contacts is provided, you can also directly add people as contacts through the app, while friends can also be added to an existing conversation. If you prefer to share the videos to other platforms, no need to worry, you will still be able to do that.
The new Shared tab in the YouTube app will show you past videos you have shared and were shared with you, alongside any conversations you have around them. It’s here that you can manage your contacts as well, and generate the above-mentioned direct link to invite users.
“These shared videos all live in a brand new tab on your YouTube mobile app, making it easier than ever to catch up on videos your friends have shared or to show them a few of your own favourites,” the company said in its post. The feature is available through the updated Android and iOS apps, and if it hasn’t already rolled out to you, we would advise you to wait as it should show up very soon.
