YouTube responds to “top feature request” by testing direct messages

YouTube — not Instagram — is the latest platform sliding into your DMs.

In Ireland and Poland, users above the age of 18 now have the ability to “share videos you love…and have conversations about them directly on the YouTube mobile app.” A Google Support thread notes that the ability to share and receive DMs has been a “top feature request” from members of its community, so the initial testing phase is likely to be followed by a wider rollout (though that’s never a guarantee with experimental YouTube features).

YouTube’s history with messaging features goes back to the site’s early days, when response videos and comment threads fostered a sitewide spirit of community and open discussion. A more literal take on direct messaging arrived in 2017, but it didn’t last long. By 2019, YouTube was already moving away from its DMs to “focus more on improving public conversations.”

The Community tab eventually emerged as a primary forum for those public, one-to-many communiques, and its rebranding as ‘Posts’ further deepened YouTube’s suite of social features. In 2025, however, tech industry trends are pushing YouTube back towards the humble DM. Instagram, for example, has started packing its famous DMs full of perks and features and has tested a design

that would put those messages front and center.

One potential explanation for the DM renaissance is the importance of text-based content in a tech landscape defined by search wars and AI. Reddit-style comment threads, for example, have all of a sudden become a hot addition among Big Tech firms.

The simplest reasoning for YouTube’s embrace of the DM, however, is that the platform is embracing its identity as a social media hub. Platforms have tried to evade that characterization as the social media industry comes under fire from regulators, but YouTube is already being included in sweeping restrictions, whether leadership likes it or not. If the world is going to consider YouTube to be an inherently social entity, it might as well add basic messaging features.

That decision doesn’t come without risks. DMs can be a powerful tool for bad actors like predators and scammers, so much so that Roblox is now baking age verification into its chat features. If the tenor of a typical YouTube comment section is any indication, the platform’s safety teams might have their hands full moderating the new messaging format.