Communities: YouTube launches a new social media section
YouTube Communities is intended as a space for creators and fans to share their own content and interact with each other. The test phase is still ongoing.
(Image: Shutterstock.com/Chubo - my masterpiece)
The video platform YouTube is launching a new area in which creators and producers of YouTube content can interact with their fans and viewers. The company announced this on Wednesday at its Made on YouTube event. The area called "Communities" will be linked to the YouTube channel of the respective creator. Viewers will be able to post directly to the creator's channel and interact with other fans.
In addition to familiar functions such as creating posts and comments as well as moderation tools, YouTube Communities differs in some important ways, the company writes in a blog post. Whereas in the past, viewers could only leave comments on an artist's videos, in future they will be able to share their own content in a creator's community and interact with each other. In a cooking community, participants will then have the opportunity to share recipes, post photos of the dishes they have prepared or provide suggestions for the YouTube channel's next cooking video. The creators of the respective YouTube channel will be able to determine who can participate in their community. At launch, only subscribers can post in YouTube Communities.
Tests with selected channels
"Communities is a place where you and your fans can come together to build an even closer relationship with the topics and videos you love. It's not just about posting updates between uploaders or asking for opinions or ideas, but for the first time, subscribers will initiate their own discussions with you and each other," the tech blog TechCrunch quotes Bangaly Kaba, Director of Product Management at YouTube, who addressed content creators and creators during the Made on YouTube event.
YouTube hopes that with the new Communities social media space, creators will no longer need to use platforms like Discord or Reddit to interact with viewers. The company sees Communities as a dedicated space for conversation and connection that allows creators to maintain control over their content. YouTube is currently testing Communities on mobile devices with a small group of creators. "We've started building communities with a small, diverse selection of channels, and many of the first communities are already very successful," the company writes in its blog, announcing that it will expand YouTube Communities to other channels in early 2025.
(akn)
