Skip to main content

YouTube to launch the social networking features you’ve always wanted

A smartphone displaying YouTube on its screen as it lays on top of a laptop's keyboard.
Image used with permission by copyright holder
YouTube will soon let you interact with creators like never before thanks to the rollout of a new social timeline.

The feature, which is internally known as “Backstage,” allows users to share a host of multimedia content including photos, polls, links, text posts, and videos with subscribers.

YouTube plans to launch Backstage by the end of the year, and as early as this fall, to a select number of influencers on mobile and desktop, according to VentureBeat.

By the sounds of it, Backstage will offer similar social functions that already exist elsewhere on platforms such as Twitter (which lets you conduct polls), and Facebook. This isn’t the first time this year YouTube has emulated those services — in June, Google’s video platform announced it was rolling out its very own mobile live-streaming service, arguably in response to the success of Twitter’s Periscope, and Facebook Live.

The latter live video feature poses the biggest threat to YouTube. Facebook Live is already poaching some of YouTube’s biggest creators with lucrative financial deals. Additionally, Facebook already boasts a massive social networking interface that those same creators can take advantage of to increase their audience.

Backstage is evidently YouTube’s answer to the growing threat of Facebook Live and Twitter. The popular video platform is planning to integrate the social features into its individual channels, alongside the “home” and “video tabs. Instead of relying on an algorithm, the Backstage timeline will appear in a reverse chronological order, with channel subscribers receiving notifications every time content is shared to the feed. Subscribers will eventually be allowed to reply to posts with their own comments, including multimedia posts that could include photos, videos, and GIFs.

Critically for YouTube, Backstage could help it to retain more creators that are busy extending their digital brands across social networks. Like its rivals, YouTube is also keen on encouraging more activity. As we’ve seen with Instagram (which recently copied Snapchat’s Stories feature) the more options you give users to share a status, the more engagement you are likely to receive.

Digital Trends reached out to YouTube for a comment on Backstage, but did not immediately receive a response.

Editors' Recommendations

Saqib Shah
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Saqib Shah is a Twitter addict and film fan with an obsessive interest in pop culture trends. In his spare time he can be…
YouTube TV adds Magnolia Network and other FAST channels
YouTube TV on Apple TV.

YouTube TV has added a handful of channels of the FAST variety — that is, the sort of thing you'd find on an ad-supported service like Tubi or The Roku Channel. The additions are hardly the only FAST channels on the largest live-streaming service in the U.S., which has more than 5 million subscribers as of June 2022.

New to YouTube TV are Magnolia Network, Charge!, TBD TV, and T2. The CW also makes an appearance in the list of new channels after a new deal was reached earlier this spring.

Read more
These are the 10 most-viewed YouTube videos of all time
The red and white YouTube logo on a phone screen. The phone is on a white background.

Being popular is about the only thing the current most-viewed YouTube videos have in common with their top-performing predecessors. Even though YouTube videos like Chocolate Rain went viral during the first few years of YouTube's content, they probably wouldn't be among the kinds of videos that go viral on the platform now.

In fact, children's programming and music videos are now among the most-viewed content on YouTube. Music videos, in particular, have enjoyed great success on the streaming site and, until recently, had been the majority of the most-viewed videos in YouTube's history. Music videos still account for 40% of the top 10 most-viewed videos, however. The other 60% is content for young children. If these view counts are anything to go by, the video-sharing site could be considered a leading platform for music videos and kid-friendly content, rather than just the memeworthy viral videos the site was known for in its early days.
What is the most-viewed YouTube video of all time?
Baby Shark Dance is the most-viewed video ever on YouTube. The children's song overtook the all-Spanish version of Despacito in November 2020.
What are the top 10 most-viewed YouTube videos?

Read more
YouTube TV details fixes for audio sync, better 1080p quality
YouTube TV on Apple TV.

YouTube TV — the most popular live-streaming service service in the U.S. with more than 5 million subscribers — this week gave an update on Reddit on some bug squashing and upcoming features, plus some welcome improvements. It's an interesting bit of transparency in an age in which app changelogs are all but useless.

Probably the most interesting is that YouTube TV is "testing transcoding changes, including a bit rate increase for live 1080p content." Resolution — that's the 1080p number — is just one part of what makes up the quality of the picture on your screen. Bit rate is another. Basically it refers to the amount of data being pushed to make up that resolution — like the difference between a 1,080-piece puzzle with a picture made up of five colors, or one made up of 500 colors. Think of it like that. The higher the bit rate, the better the picture. And as we've discussed before, we'll take a 1080p stream with a higher bit rate over a bad 4K stream any day of the week, particularly when it comes to sports (which is exactly what we've seen with Apple's excellent MLS streams).

Read more