https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/05/youtube-is-killing-off-youtube-stories-its-snapchat-clone/

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May it rest in peace with Instagram Stories, Fleets, and LinkedIn
Stories --

YouTube Stories, Google's clone of Snapchat, is dying on June 26

Google's clone of TikTok is a decent replacement for its clone of
Snapchat.

Ron Amadeo - May 25, 2023 8:42 pm UTC

reader comments

69 with

  * 
    YouTube Stories would sometimes show up in your subscription
    feed. (Sorry about the arrow, blame YouTube.)
    YouTube
  * 
    Mostly, though, they hung out in this backroom tab. The stories
    auto-deleting means the screen always looked nearly dead like
    this.
    YouTube
  * 
    The creation interface.
    YouTube

YouTube's "copy the hot new video site" strategy is ending the way it
often does--with a shutdown. This time it's killing off "YouTube
Stories," a Snapchat clone the company launched in 2017 under the
name "Reels" and later renamed to YouTube Stories in 2018. A YouTube
support article details the shutdown and says that June 26 will be
the last day to upload a story.

Google kills product

  * YouTube Stories, Google's clone of Snapchat, is dying on June 26
  * RIP to Dropcams, Nest Secure: Google is shutting down servers
    next year
  * Google Assistant might be doomed: Division "reorganizes" to focus
    on Bard
  * Stadia's pivot to a cloud service has also been shut down
  * Google kills "Duplex on the Web," an automated website navigation
    feature

View more stories YouTube Stories always had a weird footprint that
made it easy to miss. It was mobile-only, and visiting a channel page
would show a "stories" tab, or sometimes they would show up in your
mobile subscription feed. Just like Snapchat, the videos auto-deleted
after seven days. That made them a strange choice for creators
usually looking to broadcast to a wide audience since it cut off the
long tail of historical video views. Whatever the actual usage of
YouTube Stories was, the auto-delete feature means it's normal for
channels to have zero visible stories at any given time.

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As the world's biggest video site, YouTube doesn't have much room for
organic growth and instead spends its time cloning any upstart video
sites that might eat into its view time. In 2015, there was YouTube
Gaming, a Twitch clone that brought gaming livestreams and a new
game-centric homepage to YouTube. The YouTube Gaming app and the
gaming homepage were shut down in 2019, but many features survive as
part of YouTube today, like low-latency livestreams and chat
features.

YouTube Originals was a swing at Netflix, and it saw YouTube produce
scripted Hollywood-style shows or big-budget content starring popular
YouTubers. These more premium videos were exclusive for subscribers
to the $12-a-month YouTube Red subscription (later renamed YouTube
Premium), which also offers ad-free viewing. YouTube Originals lasted
from 2016-2022.

Google's new fling is YouTube Shorts, a clone of TikTok. This is a
mobile-centric bite-sized video format that's addictive to swipe
through. This one is still kicking, and if government TikTok bans
ever get more popular, Google looks ready to step in immediately.
Shorts today are not all that different from Stories, with various
text and filters available, they just don't expire automatically.

Listing image by Future Publishing | Getty Images

reader comments

69 with
 
Ron Amadeo Ron is the Reviews Editor at Ars Technica, where he
specializes in Android OS and Google products. He is always on the
hunt for a new gadget and loves to rip things apart to see how they
work. He loves to tinker and always seems to be working on a new
project.
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