Even YouTube is adding Stories.
The popular option introduced by Snapchat, then adopted by Instagram, Skype, Facebook and Messenger, is now making its way to YouTube as a new feature to be called “Reels.”
Reels is YouTube’s spin on Stories, not an exact copy, they will not appear at the top of the app, as Stories do on Instagram, instead, they’ll appear in a brand-new tab on a creator’s channel.
The launch of the Reels beta was mentioned briefly in an announcement today about the expansion of YouTube Community tab to all creators with over 10,000 subscribers.
We asked YouTube for more details on Reels, which will soon be introduced into beta for a handful of creators for feedback and further testing.
Since Reels are posted to a separate tab on the creator’s channel, similar to Community itself, viewers could choose to go watch these new videos or not.
But if users engage with Reels, then YouTube will take that as a signal that you’d like to see them more often. That could trigger their appearance on the viewer’s YouTube home page as recommendations, YouTube said.