YouTube is now rolling out its Instagram-like stories to more users, a feature that has been in testing since last year.
Users with over 10,000 subscribers can publish stories on the mobile app, which can be viewed by subscribers and non-subscribers.
Stories will automatically appear in the “Up Next” sidebar when watching a video from a creator who has recently published a story.
They will also appear in a carousel at the top of subscribers’ home screens.
YouTube offers the same creation tools for stories as other platforms like Instagram and Snapchat. However, that’s where the similarities end.
Users should be aware of some distinct differences between YouTube stories, and stories on other social media apps, before publishing one.
How YouTube Stories Are Different From Other Stories
Other than the 10K threshold required to use the feature, here’s what else makes YouTube stories different.
Stories stay up for a whole week
Unlike stories on other platforms, which expire after 24 hours, YouTube stories remain online for 7 days.
So creators should try to make sure what they publish will still be relevant up to 7 days after the posting date.
Responses are not private
When a user responds to a creator’s story it’s available for the whole community to see.
Replies to stories on other platforms are typically sent privately via direct message.
When a user replies to a YouTube story it’s added as a comment, which other users can upvote or downvote.
Strangely, creators can only reply to comments with a photo or video, which is then shared as another story.
Seems like every social app is jumping on the stories trend this year. For better or worse at least YouTube is taking a different approach to it.
You can see a demonstration of YouTube stories in the video below:
