YouTube is killing its Messages service next month

You have just under a month to send direct messages via YouTube, as the site is killing the feature on September 18.

A support page, spotted by 9to5Google, has popped up outlining the feature’s demise, and informing users that videos are best passed on via the standard social network share buttons on the site.  

“Heads Up – We’re removing the ability to message directly on YouTube after September 18,” the heading reads.

“Two years ago, we launched a feature to enable you to share videos via direct messages on YouTube,” it continues. “Since then, we’ve also focused on public conversations with updates to comments, posts, and stories. We’re constantly reevaluating our priorities and have decided to discontinue YouTube’s native direct messaging feature while we focus on improving public conversations.”

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That’s right: direct messaging has only been a YouTube feature for two years, or to put it another way, it’s only been around for 14% of the site’s life. 

While not the most high profile failure, you can probably add this to parent company Google’s growing list of missteps in social media and chatting apps. YouTube messages can join an ever growing pile of Google branded social missteps which includes Buzz, Wave, Allo, Hangouts and of course Google Plus. 

It will be interesting to see what YouTube ultimately replaces this with. The site is experimenting with YouTube Stories, which lets content creators with over 10,000 subscribers communicate directly with their fans, but obviously that’s not something that the casual YouTube user can use. It would be surprising if Google was ultimately satisfied with a situation where its users have no choice but to use rival platforms to share YouTube clips. 

Did you use direct messaging on YouTube? Will you be sorry to see it go? Let us know what you think on Twitter: @TrustedReviews.