YouTube, the online video-sharing platform owned by Alphabet Inc.’s Google, has decided to discontinue its Snapchat clone, YouTube Stories. Originally introduced as ‘Reels’ in 2017, it was later rebranded as YouTube Stories in 2018. With Stories, creators that had over 10,000 subscribers could share temporary posts that would be automatically removed after seven days.
However, YouTube has now decided to discontinue the feature from June 26th and shift its focus onto other avenues for content creation and engagement. This includes Community Posts, which allow for text-based updates, polls, quizzes, images, and videos, aimed at encouraging creators to engage with their audience and promote their content.
YouTube is also placing greater emphasis on Shorts, its answer to the popular trend of short-form videos. Unlike Stories, Shorts has no automatic expiration feature and aims to incentivize the creation of shorter, easily digestible content by sharing ad revenue with creators through a revamped monetization plan. This aligns with evolving viewer preferences and helps YouTube compete in the short-form video space.
YouTube’s decision to discontinue Stories comes as it seeks to move away from the underutilized feature and focus on Community Posts and Shorts instead.
