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

Introduced in 2017 as Reels, Stories were available to users with over 10,000 subscribers.

YouTube now has over 2 billion monthly active users from all around the world. (Image: YouTube)

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Did you know that YouTube also had Instagram-like Stories? If you’ve never heard of those then that could explain why YouTube has chosen to discontinue them. From June 26 onwards, Stories will no longer be seen on the platform. Users won’t be able to post any new Stories and existing posts will expire after seven days.

Introduced in 2017 as Reels, Stories were available to users with over 10,000 subscribers. They worked similarly to Instagram Stories, disappearing after a set amount of time. 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.

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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 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.