YouTube unveils in-app messaging to become the video watercooler again
YouTube is facing off strident competition from Facebook to be the defacto place where people talk about social video – and to do this it is releasing an in-app messaging service.
In a blogpost, the company, using Justin Bieber’s record breaking single ‘Despacito’ as a prime example, said it wants users sharing videos directly with friends and family.
Benoît de Boursetty, product manager at YouTube, said: “ 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.
“We think it’ll make sharing easier, faster and more fun on your phone. And if you want to continue sharing videos through other apps, you can still do that too.
The new feature lives in a devoted tab in the app, and YouTube no doubt hopes it stops people sharing the videos on third party platforms like Facebook, Messenger or even WhatsApp.