Since 1026, YouTube developers have been working on a new service for the app- in app messaging. Currently, the messaging service is only available in Canada as it needs to have tests run on it. Why Canada? It’s thought that apps and new platforms are often launched for testing in Canada because of the countries similarities to the United States, but smaller population (about the population of California). According to the developers, it’s also a good launch place for the new YouTube service because Canadians share more YouTube videos than anyone else that has access to the program.
The new messaging feature is available for IOS and Android devices. It’s goal, stated by the developers, is to keep the conversation between video sharers on the YouTube platform, and away from other sites such as Facebook and Twitter. They also want users to think of YouTube as a social media platform that they can spend time on, instead of just popping in and out of the app when they want to look up a specific video. With the new messaging system, developers guess that people will spend more time in the app because they can communicate with others directly through it.
The app is nothing video related, other than the fact that it makes the sharing of videos easier. Essentially, the new messaging feature within the YouTube app is just a basic messaging system. It can be used to have basic text-based conversations and share links to content found outside of the site.
The messaging system also allows for spam and junk messages to be filtered out of users’ inboxes.
Cool, right? Right. What if you don’t live in Canada, though? You might be thinking that you don’t get to try the new app out- but that’s not necessarily true. If you have a buddy in Canada who uses YouTube, he or she can send you a message from their new messaging system and when you receive the message, you’ll have access to the new feature as well.
If testing goes well in Canada, the new messaging feature will be rolled out to the United States and other parts of the world. The app’s future really depends on how well users adjust to it, and whether or not the messaging system proves to be useful.
What do you think? Will the YouTube in-app messaging feature be a hit?
