YouTube expands its Discord-like Communities feature to more creators
What's the story
YouTube is expanding the reach of its dedicated community space feature, Communities.
The move is aimed at giving more creators an opportunity to connect with their fans directly on the platform, without having to rely on third-party platforms like Discord.
First introduced at the Made for YouTube event last September, Communities is available only on mobile.
Feature details
Communities: A hub for creator-fan interaction
The Communities feature lets creators create posts with images and text, as well as lets fans start discussions.
YouTube said in a recent post that they have been testing the feature with a small group of creators, who have given positive feedback. This prompted them to continue expanding access.
To handle these interactions, creators can use Community Hub in YouTube Studio app that consolidates activity from their channel and suggests potential responses to fan comments.
Rebranding
YouTube rebrands 'Community' tab to 'Posts'
In a bid to avoid confusion between the existing Community tab and the new feature, YouTube has opted to rename the former as Posts.
The functionality of this tab remains unchanged despite the new name.
Creators can continue to share updates and announcements via posts, while viewers can interact by commenting on these posts as they have always done.
Access process
Invitation-only access for creators
Access to Communities is still invitation-only for creators.
Invitations will be sent via email and shown as a banner on their channel pages within the YouTube app.
Once they receive an invitation, creators will be prompted to "Go to Community" for more information and then given the option to activate the features.
This way, only selected creators can use this dedicated space for fan engagement on YouTube's platform.