Tuesday, August 8, 2017

YouTube’s Mobile Video Sharing and Messaging Feature

As if sharing videos through text or email wasn't good enough, YouTube has rolled out a new feature for mobile-only users that allows fans to share and chat with friends and family in private...without ever leaving the YouTube app. It works similar to the default messenger app with Android, allowing you to share a video with a single contact or a group. You are able to continue a thread without the need for a different messaging application, and others in the convo can respond with text or even another video.YouTube Mobile Video Sharing and Messaging You have to invite others to be in your chat, and once they accept you are on your way to a video sharing fest! This post talks a little more about the process of getting your friends and family on board:

YouTube messaging arrives in-app to simplify video sharing - SlashGear

Once the updated app arrives on your phone, you’ll see a new tab that contains all the shared videos. It seems your YouTube friends will be able to see videos you have shared in general; there’s also the option to share a video directly with multiple people through the messaging functionality. YouTube says the feature is available now, though not everyone is seeing it at this point.

Read the original post here:  YouTube messaging arrives in-app to simplify video sharing - SlashGear

The sharing feature has been in the testing phase since the middle of last year. At the beginning of 2017, Canadian users were privy to a "soft launch.” It was eventually rolled out to other parts of North America and after lots of testing and feedback, YouTube decided it was officially ready for the world as of August 7, 2017. This promo clip by YouTube Help shows a quick glimpse of how the app works:
YouTube's mobile video sharing and messaging service is comparable to other platforms, such as Instagram. With Instagram Direct, which was introduced in December of 2013, you can send messages, photos and videos to one person or to a group of up to 15 people. And very much like Snapchat, Instagram also has the ability to send disappearing messages with photos or video. Vanishing videos wouldn't really make sense for YouTube, as they want you to share your creation with the world, but I guess you never know. Is there an over-saturation with messaging apps? Maybe, but with YouTube it sort of makes sense. People love to share their favorite videos, so why not be able to do so right within the app. Even though they had worked out a lot of the bugs by the official launch date, it hasn't been perfected. Given time, though, I'm sure there will be a lot of upgrades to the feature and possibly be offered on desktop as well. This post mentions some of the less attractive features for the YouTube app:

YouTube adds in-app direct messaging and sharing featuresMobile Phone with Video

Sadly, the phone book doesn't actually show whether or not your contacts are using YouTube; it just pulls up an "add me as a contact on YouTube" message and dumps it into an SMS. It would be a lot more elegant if the app could recognize which of your friends are signed into YouTube and just start the conversation there. That's the challenge with what YouTube is trying to do here: It's easy enough to just use the standard Android or iOS sharing pane to drop a video into iMessage or your chat app of choice, but it's beneficial for YouTube to keep the conversation going on its own platform.

Find out more here:  YouTube adds in-app direct messaging and sharing features

Another quirk I found with the YouTube video sharing feature is that once I went back into the app, I had trouble locating the conversation to continue it. Once I realized the icon looks similar to the icon for Android messenger, it made sense. However, until I had a couple connections, that area didn't look like the place to carry on the discussion. There is supposed to be a tab that shows all the shared videos/messages, but it is possible that all the features haven't been completely displayed.

YouTube’s Mobile Video Sharing and Messaging Feature is republished from http://ift.tt/13eIL48

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