YouTube to roll out new 'reel' feature soon

If you have used Instagram or Snapchat, you may have heard of 'Stories,' which lets you bridge together videos and images to create a story of your day. YouTube is the latest to hop on the ‘stories’ bandwagon but the new feature is a variation of current stories format and has lately unveiled a new feature for creators, dubbed as ‘reels.’

Youtube says the newest feature is a way for creators to express themselves and engage with fans without the need to post a full video. Unlike rival platforms like Snapchat and Instagram, Reels will not expire after 24 hours and the stories would be capped to the 30 seconds per clip.  

Reels, however, will not be featured at the top of the YouTube app like Instagram. Instead, it will appear in a dedicated tab, separate from a creator’s main list of videos. Youtube’s new feature is expected to roll out soon for a beta test to a handful of YouTube creators. It will also allow creators to link the videos to YouTube and add stickers reminiscent of YouTube.

“We want to do even more to give you easy ways to express yourself and engage with fans, so today we're also unveiling a new feature. Reels are YouTube's spin on the popular "stories" format but designed specifically for YouTube creators.

Users will also be allowed to add custom music and text and can engage with the Reels by giving them a thumbs up or a thumbs down, similar to YouTube videos and comment on them.

Youtube says, ‘We learned that you want the flexibility to create multiple Reels and have them not expire, so we'll give you those options. We're also bringing creator-focused features like linking to YouTube videos and YouTube-y stickers.”

Moreover, YouTube has also 'optimised' notifications about new Community posts, but subscribers won’t get a notification for every new post. The Communities platform was originally launched in September last year, allowing a select group of creators to share multimedia content with their followers.