Reminiscent of other social media platforms, YouTube announced that it would discontinue the Stories feature after June 26. Similar to Instagram Stories, this feature allowed select contributors to share updates and promote their channels. However, due to limited access and low popularity, YouTube Stories failed to gain traction among users. As the platform evolves, YouTube is shifting its focus to other features, including expanding community posts and promoting Shorts, a short video format aimed at competing with TikTok. The decision follows a trend among various tech companies, including Netflix, LinkedIn, Twitter and Spotify, that have experimented with or abandoned similar story-like features.
The evolution of YouTube’s Stories:
Appearing in 2017, YouTube Stories was initially available exclusively to users with more than 10,000 subscribers. This feature allowed authors to share updates and interact with their audience. However, limited access to it and content creators’ preference for long and short videos prevented Stories from becoming a popular feature on the platform. Despite efforts to drive popularity, YouTube decided to abandon Stories, recognizing the need to devote resources to other features that better match user preferences.
Community posts and enhanced engagement:
YouTube is actively expanding the functionality of community posts, giving creators more tools to interact with their audiences. This includes the ability to post text updates, polls, quizzes and images to your channel. By fostering deeper connections and interactions between creators and viewers, YouTube aims to create a vibrant and dynamic community-based experience. The recently added delete post feature also allows creators to manage their content more effectively.
Emphasis on shorts and competition with TikTok:
With the discontinuation of Stories, YouTube is doubling down on its Shorts feature, which is a direct competitor to the popular TikTok short video platform. Shorts allows creators to create and share short, attention-grabbing videos. In an effort to attract more creators to the format, YouTube in February began sharing ad revenue with Shorts creators, encouraging them to create compelling and viral content. By investing in Shorts, YouTube hopes to capture the rapidly growing short video market and provide creators with an alternative platform for creative expression.
Following industry trends:
YouTube isn’t the first platform to experiment with or retire storytelling features. Netflix introduced “Extras” in its mobile app, sharing videos and photos from popular shows before moving to vertical short videos. LinkedIn dropped the Stories feature in 2021, and Twitter removed the Fleets feature eight months after launch. Spotify also joined the trend by introducing a story-like feature for artist profiles. This suggests that while stories have been a popular format, their success is not guaranteed across all platforms, and each platform must evaluate their relevance to its user base and long-term goals.
Conclusion:
YouTube’s decision to drop the Stories feature reflects the platform’s evolving strategy to prioritize features that resonate more with users. Because Stories has failed to gain significant popularity, YouTube has focused on expanding community posts and promoting the Shorts format to compete with TikTok. As the tech industry continues to experiment with and phase out Stories-like features, companies like YouTube must adapt to the changing preferences of their users and invest in features that promote engagement and creativity. In making these strategic changes, YouTube aims to maintain its position as the leading platform for both content creators and viewers.