YouTube is killing Stories – The Verge

YouTube get rid of stories, which is a benefit for temporary jobs, starting in June. Users will not be able to post stories starting June 26, and existing posts will expire after seven days.

Stories was first introduced in 2017 under the name Reels and has been available to users with over 10,000 subscribers. Similar to Instagram (which in turn lifted the concept from Snapchat), YouTube Stories disappeared after a set period of time; Creators can use Stories to post updates or behind-the-scenes content to promote their channel. But looking today, it doesn’t seem like it caught on — access was limited, few creators seem to be posting stories regularly, and the feature doesn’t get much promotion even from YouTube.

In the absence of Stories, YouTube instead wants creators to post content to the other surfaces on the platform: community posts and short stories. company recently expanded Access to community posts, a feature for text updates, and the addition of the ability for posts to expire after a certain period. Creators can also share polls, quizzes, photos, and videos as community posts, which appear in a tab on channels.

YouTube is also channeling the popularity of short video into its TikTok competitor, The Shorts, and trying to get traditional long-form video creators to start creating shorter content, too. In February, YouTube began sharing ad revenue from short films with creators under a revised monetization plan.

Although many platforms have embraced the story format first popularized by Snapchat, YouTube isn’t the first to discontinue its version. Remember Fleets, the ephemeral posts on Twitter that disappeared within a year?

Correction May 25 1:10 PM ET: This story originally stated that Stories would end on May 26th. Stories will be published on June 26th. We are sorry for the error.