YouTube Launches Its Own Stories

The evolution of the use of Stories started with Snapchat; WhatsApp and Facebook joined, even LinkedIn has its own Story variation. Now YouTube has joined the Stories train.

YouTube announced the launch of 'YouTube Stories' this week by fitting into the video-enabled feature where you can also chat.

As you can see in the video, YouTube Stories looks and functions much the same as the Stories options you're used to - as explained by YouTube:

"Creating with Stories is lightweight, easy, and fun. Stories will have the fun creation tools that you know and love. You can add text, music, filters, YouTubey stickers, and more to make your story uniquely you! To create a story, just open the YouTube mobile app, tap on the video camera icon, and select "Create Story."

The YouTube Stories icon would be at the top of the app, showcasing the latest stories from creators that you follow. YouTube Stories will last for seven days in the app which is far longer than the 24-hour content period in other Apps option.

At launch, this new feature will only be available to creators with 10k+ subscribers which makes it limited to a certain category of people at this stage.

Given this, it wouldn't be any surprise to see Twitter or Pinterest stories in future too. There's nothing to suggest those might be coming, but again, it would make a lot of sense. If Stories aren't part of your digital marketing approach in 2019, you may need to re-think that, as the option continues to expand across social apps.