RIP YouTube Stories, you won’t be missed

Google is killing yet another of its features. YouTube, the biggest video platform in the world, has announced that it is ending YouTube Stories. Originally launched back in 2017 as YouTube Reels, it basically copied the temporary posts format popularised by Snapchat and Instagram. It was promoted as a way for creators to build a rapport with their audience, but honestly it just didn’t take off like it did on other platforms.

According to YouTube, since the original incarnation of Stories, there are now plenty of ways to create posts on YouTube, such as Community posts, YouTube Shorts and YouTube Live on top of their regular videos. To prioritise these features, YouTube will be ending YouTube Stories instead. YouTube Stories will officially be sunsetted on the 26th of June, with the option to create a new YouTube Story by then no longer available. Meanwhile stories posted before that date that are still live will expire a week after they were originally shared.

The platform also suggests that creators use Community posts and YouTube Shorts instead as alternatives to connect with their audience outside of posting videos. Community posts are an easy way for creators to provide updates to their audience, start conversations or to just further promote your videos to your audience. YouTube themselves claim that creators who use the Community posts feature drive much more comments and likes than just using YouTube Stories.

As for Shorts, well just like Stories before it, it’s pretty much been inspired by features from other social media platforms—TikTok in this case. YouTube says that if you still want to create short form video content, creators should try out YouTube Shorts which they say bring about more subscribers than Stories do.

You can find out more about YouTube Stories going away on the YouTube Help website here.