Newsletter
YouTube’s direct messages are a way for people to interact on the video sharing platform outside of comments. For a time, it was a loved feature. Now YouTube direct messages is disappearing in the near future.
Over on the YouTube Help page a post from a Google employee on August 20 breaks the bad news to the community.
“We’re removing the ability to message directly on YouTube after September 18,” it says. One could assume that the reason for removing the feature is because no one used it. Replies in the comments though tell a different story.
A Well-Liked Feature For Making Friends
According to numerous people in the comments, direct messages on YouTube is something that was well-liked. Many comments out of the 569 and counting seem to think that removing direct messages is a bad idea.
Based on all the responses so far, people are using the feature, with many stating that they have used direct messages to make new friends and keep in contact with current ones.
So, why the decision to remove direct messages from YouTube? There isn’t much detail, but in the brief post YouTube mentions that it has decided to focus more on public conversations.
After direct messages was launched, YouTube says it put focus and effort into improving comments, posts, and stories. So, it seems the company is shifting its focus to these avenues for communication on YouTube.
YouTube may have looked at the numbers and noticed that the majority of users aren’t interacting through direct messages. It could also be trying to push people into using the comments sections and stories more.
“We’re Constantly Reevaluating Our Priorities”
Whatever YouTube’s full reasoning, one thing is clear. YouTube’s direct messages feature is no longer a priority. At least not one worth keeping.
YouTube says that it’s constantly “reevaluating priorities” which led to the decision to discontinue direct messages. Instead choosing to focus on improving public conversations more.
What this means for users is that sharing videos through direct messages is no longer going to be possible. Sharing in general however will be.
Sharing itself isn’t going away, obviously. It’s a staple of the YouTube experience. To continue sharing videos on YouTube, users will need to click the share button then click the appropriate icon for where they want to share.
Whether that’s Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, or just copying the link and pasting it somewhere, the capability to share is staying.
Until September 18, users can still share videos and have conversations through the direct messages feature. So, enjoy it while you can.