YouTube has developed a new messaging service which allows users to share and chat about videos within the YouTube app.
Referred to by YouTube as “native sharing”, this new feature reduces the need to leave YouTube in order to share videos with friends. Designed to keep users in the app for longer, it will now be possible to share videos and create message threads to chat with friends. The feature will remove the need to copy and paste links into emails, texts, or other messaging services.
In an article published by Wired, Shimrit Ben-Yair, Director of Product Management at YouTube, says that the feature was developed after her team “hypothesised that a streamlined native way to share YouTube videos would result in more sharing”.
YouTube is still the dominant video-sharing site. However, Facebook and Snapchat are quickly becoming its strongest competitors. Amazon has also announced its own online video-posting service.
The feature is currently live and available on iOS and Android. Currently only a limited number of users have access to it, but as they invite friends to chat it will become available to more people.
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