A few months ago Google presented this very feature, but it wasn’t until now that it went live for every user. Now you can send videos to all your contacts and chat with friends from an in-app chat panel without leaving the official YouTube app itself. This is huge news, as we’re basically looking at a new major messaging tool integrated within YouTube. Given that millions upon millions of users log onto the popular video site everyday, this new feature is going to create quite a buzz.
Little by little, this feature will start activating for anyone logged onto YouTube from its official Android app. You’ll know it’s enabled for your account as soon as a ‘Share’ option within your lower menu appears. Access this section to check out open chats with other users for both group chats and individual conversations.
Within each chat box you can attach YouTube videos (which is the whole point of using this feature) or watch videos as a group and comment them in real-time. From within your chat box you can also use emoji and ‘like’ any other comment posted within. All in all, its user interface is reminiscent of Hangouts, particularly in terms of the use of chat bubbles for texts and avatars.
Creating a new conversation with any user is as simple as quickly tapping on the ‘share’ button within the app’s video players. From there, tap again on anyone in your contacts. Another plus? Google automatically detects which of your contacts are people you’re in touch with often and they’ll display immediately when you tap on ‘share’.
Is this feature available for Android lollipop devices?