At its Made on YouTube event on Wednesday, the company announced a new dedicated space for creators to interact with their fans and viewers. The space, called “Communities,” is kind of like a Discord server built into a creator’s channel. With Communities, YouTube is hoping creators won’t need to use other platforms like Discord or Reddit in order to interact with viewers.
Communities are a space for viewers to post and interact with other fans directly within a creator’s channel. In the past, viewers have been limited to leaving comments on a creator’s video. Now, they can share their own content in a creator’s Community to interact with other fans over shared interests. For instance, a fitness creator’s Community could include posts from fans who are sharing videos and photos from their most recent hike.
To start, the feature is only available to subscribers.
“You know that feeling, that magic, that joy that comes from finding a group of people that just get you,” said Bangaly Kaba, director of product management at YouTube, during the event. “Communities is a place where you can choose to create that with your fans. This is a place where you and your fans can come together to build even deeper connections over the topics and videos you love, not just posting updates between uploaders or asking for opinions or ideas, but for the first time, subscribers will spark their own discussions with you and with each other.”
The company sees Communities as a dedicated space for conversation and connection, while still allowing creators to maintain control over their content. Conversations in Communities are meant to flow overtime, YouTube says, as they would in any other forum-style setting.
The new Communities feature shouldn’t be confused with YouTube’s Community feature, which is a space for creators to share text and images with viewers. The feature launched back in 2016, and doesn’t allow viewers to interact with each other.
YouTube is testing Communities now on mobile devices with a small group of creators. The company plans to test the feature with more creators later this year before expanding access to additional channels in early 2025.