Everything old is new again: YouTube is officially bringing back dms

I have been covering social media news for more than ten years, and one of the things that has surprised me most throughout all this time is how easily they can copy, practically replicate, adapt, or rework each other’s features—the sheer nerve of it, you could even say. No matter which year you look at in this process, you will always come across a story in which YouTube, TikTok, LinkedIn, Facebook, X, and of course Instagram, launch something very, very similar to some other “something” that is a hallmark of one of their rivals, from publishing formats to user features.

Sometimes, they even copy themselves.

Direct messaging comes to YouTube

YouTube has announced the rollout of its direct messaging feature within the app to most of its key international markets. In this way, the social network is bringing back a feature it already had for two years (between 2017 and 2019) and eventually shut down due to an apparent lack of use, although the official explanation was something along the lines of preferring to prioritize improvements to public conversations.

Now, the platform wants to give this feature another chance after the positive reception it received in the countries where it had been tested (since November in Ireland and Poland).

As YouTube explains, the idea is to make this feature available to users in the simplest way possible: “this update gives users a new way to share content directly from where they are watching it. Simply click on the new messaging icon within the YouTube app to send an invitation to share videos and react in real time.”

The person who receives that invitation will have the option to accept or decline it. If the invitation is accepted, you will be able to share content and messages with them directly on YouTube.

In any case, Google has put in place some very strict rules for security reasons and, of course, to prevent the inevitable spam:

• To be able to chat, both users must have a YouTube channel created. That said, you do not need to be an influencer or upload content; you just need to activate it.
• You must be 18 or older and have verified your age on your Google account.
• Chats are encrypted, but YouTube’s automated systems will scan your messages to make sure no one breaks the community guidelines. In any case, they promise not to use your conversations to sell you ads.
• Users will be able to mute conversations, block users, and report them if needed.

I imagine that this rollout, which will be gradual across the markets mentioned, has a lot to do with the rise of Shorts as a short-form video format. It is highly shareable, highly viral content, and on platforms like TikTok, competitors already have a bit of an edge because they allow users to chat right there.

We will see how it performs in this second attempt.

Image: YouTube and ChatGPT