At Made on YouTube on Wednesday, in NewYork, YouTube launched a new feature called “Communities,” a new dedicated space for creators to connect with their fans. With this update, the company hopes the pressure of always needing to create new content to keep fans engaged will be taken off creators.
The service understands that while fans and creators have been interacting through the comments and the Community tab, “conversations would often revolve around a creator’s latest video or post.”
“We wanted to build a space where, for the first time, subscribers can chat with each other and the creator directly,” writes Whitney Taylor, the Head of Design, YouTube Community.
According to the blog post, Taylor says this new feature is a result of feedback from creators and their fans. They heard the creators and their fans want more ways to connect – that for the creators, their content and communities are already on YouTube, “so we have the potential to be the best place for deeper conversations too.”
“Another consistent theme was the desire for belonging – people want a place where they feel included and understood by like-minded peers.”
YouTube acknowledges the importance of balancing vibrant engagement with an environment where you can express yourself authentically, whether you’re sharing something, asking a question, or just hanging out.
“You know that feeling, that magic, that joy that comes from finding a group of people that just get you,” said the director of Product Management at YouTube Bangaly Kaba, during the event. “Communities is a place where you can choose to create that with your fans. This is a place where you and your fans can come together to build even deeper connections over the topics and videos you love, not just posting updates between uploaders or asking for opinions or ideas, but for the first time, subscribers will spark their discussions with you and with each other.”
It is important to understand that the new Communities feature isn’t the same as the already existing YouTube Community feature, which only allows creators to share text and images with their viewers, but doesn’t allow viewers to interact with each other.
The Communities feature is currently being tested on mobile devices with a small group of creators, however, YouTube plans to test it with more creators later this year before expanding to additional channels next year.
