YouTube is one of the world’s most visited websites which sees millions of users everyday who visit it for their daily consumption of cat videos and viral memes. The YouTube app is equally ubiquitous but now it looks like the Google-owned (who in turn are owned by Alphabet) is looking to expand the app’s services beyond mere video virality. In-app messaging is the direction YouTube is taking the app.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feBF_IY-HI8
You would think YouTube would focus more on repairing relations with its numerous content creators (the most famous ones have often complained about YouTube’s lack of communication with them).Instead, we’re getting something that Google possibly hopes will rival Facebook Messenger. The feature is a built-in messaging platform, available in both the Android and iOS applications, which lets you send to connections directly within the app, and make drop messages for talking about videos, too.
It’s understandable why YouTube is testing this feature. Whenever we come across a video, we more often than not share it through a third-party platform, whether it be Facebook, WhatsApp or Twitter. However, the chat feature does not solely revolve around video sharing, it can also function as a chat app used to participate in text conversations.
Currently, the feature is being tested in Canada, a proving grounds many companies, such as Twitter and Facebook, use to test new features.
“We wanted to start with Canada because Canadians are sharing 15 per cent more videos than the average user, so it’s interesting to see this is actually a behaviour that happens more in Canada.”
– Shimrit Ben Yair, San Francisco-based product manager for Google.
The feature is expected to roll-out worldwide soon. The feature was initially being tested from mid-2016 onwards, but only to a small pool of testers.
Source: Financial Post
