YouTube To Discontinue Its Stories
YouTube recently made an announcement in which it confirmed that it will soon be discontinuing the Stories feature on its app.
This is a tool that is quite similar to Instagram and Snapchat’s disappearing messages but will no longer be available.
The Stories feature was made so that creators would have the opportunity to post updates, which would last for a time span of seven days.
However, these will now officially be phased out on the 26th of June 2023.
The Start And End Of YouTube Stories
YouTube launched Stories back in the year 2018 and was only available to particular creators, who had at least 10,000 subscribers or more.
It was initially designed to help offer people insights into behind-the-scenes, sneak peeks for new videos, vlogs, and other relevant quick updates.
But now the video-sharing platform has decided to get rid of the feature, especially after it received a number of mixed reactions from creators and users alike.
According to them, Stories are quite weird and do not consist of several important functionalities, such as video-linking and swipe-up features.
Moreover, YouTube said that the feature for Stories has seen limited adoption, especially when compared to different types of engagement tools.
These include community posts, which are responsible for driving additional likes and comments.
The New Frontier: YouTube Shorts And Community Posts
As the video-sharing app plans to discontinue the feature of Stories, it has also decided to shift its focus toward YouTube Shorts and community posts.
Just recently, YouTube provided greater access to its community posts feature to no less than millions of its creators.
Consequently, it added well-known and multiple aspects of Stories, like editing tools and the ability of a post to disappear after 24 hours have passed.
According to the company, community posts are responsible for continuously driving a higher number of likes and comments to videos, as opposed to Stories.
On the other hand, another strong feature introduced by YouTube, which is directly competing with TikTok’s videos is YouTube shorts.
This has quickly garnered popularity and attention since it closely emulates the short-form video content of TikTok on its own video-making platform.
Despite challenges, like the initial absence of monetization and technical issues, YouTube Shorts is now known as a tool, which aids in gaining new subscribers and drives increased engagement.
The Monetization Of Shorts
YouTube has made an active and significant effort in ensuring that its monetization of Shorts is improved.
On the 1st of February 2023, the company introduced a new process, which would allow eligible creators to obtain information related to the revenue generated from ads.
This information, however, will only pertain to ads that are displayed in between Shorts.
It is no secret that the new revenue-sharing model of the video-making app will be replacing the fund for YouTube Shorts.
This is mainly due to the fact that this method is more equitable and sustainable and is especially effective when it comes to compensating creators for the work that they do.