No matter where you go these days, stories are inescapable. Following their introduction on Snapchat, they've since expanded to Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, and even Skype. The idea of sharing pictures and short videos of your activities throughout the day is apparently a popular one because the latest site to adopt this trend is – wait for it – YouTube.
Before you get too worked up about your subscription feed now being filled with video uploads and stories from every channel you're subscribed to, YouTube's showing some signs of restraint with how its take on stories is implemented.
Referred to as "Reels", this is a feature that's reserved to creators with 10,000 subscribers or more. Furthermore, Reels will only be seen on the Home page of YouTube as part of the Community platform that YouTube's been testing with select users for about a year.
Reels in YouTube
Speaking of Community, YouTube is also expanding this to all creators that meet the same threshold of at least 10,000 subscribers.
In addition to posting Reels, creators can use Community to publish status updates, create polls, share GIFs, and promote other channels. You've likely noticed these updates in the YouTube app from time to time, but with this expansion, you're about to see them a lot more often.
The goal with Community and Reels is to get creators more engaged with their fans outside of video uploads, and while the idea isn't a bad one, there is the fear of this seriously cluttering up YouTube as a platform.
Examples of posts made with Community
What do you think? Are you excited to see more creators take advantage of Community and the new Reels feature? Let us know in those comments down below.
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