YouTube is swinging the axe on Stories, killing the temporary posts it ‘borrowed’ from Snapchat. Instead, it will focus on Shorts, the format it ‘borrowed’ from TikTok.
“Today, there are many ways to create on YouTube—from Community posts to Shorts, to long-form and Live. To prioritize those features, Stories are going away,” the announcement to YouTube Creators reads.
YouTube plans on swinging the axe on June 26, taking away the ability to create new YouTube Stories. Stories that were already live on that date will now expire seven days after they were originally shared. The company offers Community posts and YouTube Shorts as its alternative to this ephemeral feature lifted straight from Snapchat’s playbook.
YouTube first introduced Stories in 2017 under the name Reels, which were only available to users with 10,000 subscribers. Stories disappeared after a set amount of time, lending to the exclusivity of ‘following’ a particular channel. Many channels used the feature to deliver small updates, behind-the-scenes content, bloopers, and more that wouldn’t fit-in on the polished content main channel.
It seems the lightning in a bottle captured by Snapchat nearly ten years ago is fading as platforms work to axe concepts. Twitter abandoned its Fleets concept within a year of launching them—which highlights an important fact—disappearing content really doesn’t fit in with the online world. Sure, it’s great for personal communication and sending photos between people, but monetizing the feature on a platform dedicated to other goals appears to have been harder than either Twitter or YouTube thought it would be.
YouTube expanded its Community posts feature to give YouTube creators a way to update their community without relying on outside social networks like Twitter. These posts still feature a timer and can be set to expire, so the feature can be used to update audiences. Videos can also be shared as Community Posts, making Stories feel a bit redundant.