YouTube recently announced that beginning June 26th, it will discontinue Stories. YouTube Stories, a mobile-only feature similar to Snapchat and Instagram Stories (first named Reels), was first introduced in 2017, where creators can post their videos and photos to interact with their audience. The posts would disappear after a certain amount of time. Now, it seems that the YouTube Stories feature will soon disappear itself.
Why are YouTube Stories being discontinued?
Stories have limited accessibility; that’s why they didn’t get the same traction as their other story format counterparts. You also don’t see content creators posting YouTube stories as often, so a lot of people don’t even know it exists. Just like Twitter’s Fleets, Stories didn’t become as successful as YouTube hoped the feature would become.
YouTubewants to make its other features shine
According to a blog post, YouTube wants to prioritize other features in the platform instead, such as Community posts and Shorts. YouTube states that these “are great alternatives that can deliver valuable audience connections and conversations.”
Community posts are a text-based feature where creators can share quizzes, polls and other updates. YouTube also just recently expanded Community posts’ accessibility in the hopes of creators having more ways of interacting with their audience. Shorts, on the other hand, is a feature where creators can post short-form content like those on TikToks.
Not all platforms are successful with the “Story” format
Unfortunately, not all platforms have successful story format features, just like Twitter Fleets and — now — YouTube Stories. With Snapchat and Instagram, it’s expected you will see stories on the app. However, people don’t usually use Stories — creators and viewers. That’s why it’s an easy thing to miss. And with YouTube Shorts, viewers’ short video itches are already scratched.
But moving forward, Community posts and Shorts will still be useful features for content creators to engage more with their audience and dabble more on short-form content.
Photo by Souvik Banerjee on Unsplash