YouTube gives up on Stories, asks creators to make Community posts instead

First introduced in 2017 under the name Reels, Stories were available to users with more than 10,000 subscribers. They worked similarly to Instagram Stories, disappearing after a set amount of time, and creators could use them to post updates, behind-the-scenes clips, promote their channel, and more in the smartphone-friendly vertical format.

Unfortunately, the feature seems to have never caught on — even YouTube rarely promoted it, especially after it launched Shorts in 2020.

With Stories set to disappear soon, YouTube is pushing users to rely on Community posts and Shorts for fleeting updates, which it says are “great alternatives that can deliver valuable audience connections and conversations.”

For lightweight updates, promoting your content, or starting conversations, YouTube says that Community posts are the best option. The platform adds that Community posts on average always drove many times more comments and likes compared to Stories.

YouTube isn’t the first to remove a Stories-like format from its platform after a short run. Back in 2021, Twitter too did away with ephemeral Fleets only a year after its introduction.