YouTube has announced that it is rolling out a new chat feature on its mobile app. The messaging feature called Native Sharing will be rolled out first to a small niche of YouTube users before it reaches the wider market.

The new YouTube messaging feature will allow users to converse with other users through text, photos, and links, provided that they are using the YouTube mobile app. The messaging feature will support sharing a video and then chatting about it directly.

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According to The Verge, users who receive the new messaging update can share the feature to other users by inviting them to conversations. Through this, YouTube is hoping that it will trickle down to other users.

Some tech analysts are a bit puzzled about why YouTube would integrate a native messaging feature on its mobile platform, especially since YouTube comment sections are notorious for trolling and chaotic conversations. However, YouTube thinks that by adding the new native messaging feature, it can increase the amount of videos being shared by users without the need to use an external or third party app to do so.

With services like Facebook and Snapchat are slowly inching towards the video platform, YouTube is also integrating social networking elements into its service. By doing this, YouTube is slowly transforming its platform into a social networking service that people can spend time on instead of just a service that hosts videos.

Google, YouTube's parent company, has had a troubled history when it comes to social networking. Google+ failed to capitalize on the platform and was eventually shut down last year. With YouTube's already massive user base, the biggest hurdle for the company is how to tame the uncontrollable trolls that have infested its comments sections. Hopefully, with the introduction of the new native messaging system, YouTube may finally have the answer to Google's social networking woes.

TagsYouTube, YouTube messenger, YouTube native messaging, native messaging, YouTube News, YouTube features, youtube update