YouTube launches communities feature to increase interaction
At its Made On YouTube event, YouTube announced a new space dedicated to creators to interact with fans and viewers.
The space called “Communities” is somewhat similar to a Discord server built into a creator’s channel.
Creators post videos on YouTube, although they also move to other platforms to actually interact with their fans and viewers.
With communities, YouTube hopes creators won't need to use other platforms to interact with viewers, like Discord or Reddit.
Communities are a space for viewers to post and interact with other fans directly within the creator's channel.
In the past, viewers were limited to leaving comments on a creator's video, whereas now they can post content to the creator's community to interact with other fans around shared interests.
For example, a fitness creator's community could include posts from fans posting videos and photos from their latest run. The feature is available to subscribers only.
“You know that feeling when you find a group of people who truly understand you. Communities are a place where you can experience that feeling with your fans,” said Bangali Kapa, YouTube’s director of product management, during the event. “Communities are a place where you and your fans can come together to build deep connections around the topics and videos you love. It’s not just uploaders posting updates or asking for feedback or ideas, subscribers spark conversations with you and each other.”
YouTube sees communities as a space for conversation and connection, while allowing creators to maintain control over content.
YouTube says conversations in communities are supposed to happen over time, just like in any other forum.
The new Communities feature should not be confused with YouTube's Community feature, a space for creators to post text and images with viewers that YouTube launched in 2016 and does not allow viewers to interact with each other.
YouTube is testing Communities on mobile now with a small group of creators. The platform plans to test the feature with additional creators later this year before expanding access to additional channels in early 2025.