YouTube’s nascent Community tab — as well as an in-app messaging feature — may soon launch within the YouTube TV and YouTube Music apps.
The Community tab, first announced in Sept. 2016, aims to make YouTube more social by enabling creators to share text posts, live videos, images, and animated GIFs, which appear within subscribers’ feeds. While the Facebook-like feature is currently only available to select users, YouTube hinted in November that a wider rollout was imminent. Last August, YouTube unveiled its in-app chatting and video-sharing feature.
Although YouTube didn’t share a timeline for the rollout, the company’s chief product officer, Neal Mohan, told Techcrunch at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) that, beyond its vast video offer, YouTube is home to a busting community that exists “between content creators and fans, and fans and fans.” Mohan (pictured above) added that the “magic of YouTube that exists in the main experience can apply to the YouTube TV experience as well.”
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YouTube TV, a so-called skinny bundle service targeting cord-cutters, is currently available in more than 70 markets. If a Community Tab were to launch within the app, Techcrunch notes that TV creators would theoretically be able to engage with fans in ways that extend beyond their shows.
