Google is finally reviving in-app private messaging on the YouTube mobile app. Google confirmed that the highly-requested DMs feature was part of an experiment “that makes it easy for you to share videos you love (long-form, Shorts and live streams) and have conversations about them directly on the YouTube mobile app.”
YouTube DMs finally have a purpose
Believe it or not, YouTube once offered up private, in-app direct messages (DMs) a couple of years back. It was largely underutilised, cluttering the front page with unnecessary icons. Despite all that, hardly anyone knew about or used the service. This was, of course, before short-form content became the social media meta. It killed off the feature in September of 2019, missing out on the rise of Shorts by a year or two.
It makes sense, then, that Google would want to revive the feature now that it might actually find an audience. Sure, users make do with third-party messaging apps, but offering up a dedicated messaging service inside the app may prompt some to send more videos to their friends and family, garnering more views for YouTube.
At the moment, the experiment is currently limited to some adult users who are signed into a Google account in Poland and Ireland, with no word on when we can expect to see a broader rollout elsewhere. There’s nothing stopping users from continuing to send their videos over WhatsApp, iMessage, or any other messaging service.
