### ► In brief
- Return of a native private sharing function
- objective: counter the leak to WhatsApp and Messenger
- System integrated into the “Share” menu without complex inbox
## The ghost of past messaging
It’s a feeling of déjà vu that strikes attentive observers of the Google ecosystem. A few years ago,YouTube had a native direct messaging feature. It allowed users to exchange videos and chat without leaving the request. Though, in 2019, Google decided to pull the plug, arguing that the feature was little used and, above all, that it had become a vector of spam that was arduous to moderate.
However, according to recent information, the world’s number one video platform seems ready to do it again. YouTube is currently rolling out a new feature that allows users to create private conversations directly from the share button.
### A discreet but strategic deployment
Unlike the previous era’s Gasworks, this new iteration feels smoother. The idea is not necessarily to create a complex mailbox, but to make “social sharing” more fluid. Concretely, when you click on “Share” under a video, a new option appears to send the content to a YouTube contact, thus opening a threaded conversation.
As pointed out in a recent report from Engadget, YouTube is once again looking to make interactions (“DMs”) happen within the app.
## Why is YouTube stubbornly focused on social?
For an expert in the sector, this maneuver is not trivial. It responds to a major problem of “retention“. Today, when a user finds an engaging video, their immediate reflex is to copy the link and send it to WhatsApp, iMessage or Telegram. For YouTube, this is a complete loss of behavioral data and screen time.
If the conversation takes place on WhatsApp, YouTube doesn’t know what’s being said or who’s influencing who. If the conversation takes place on YouTube, the algorithm can refine it’s recommendations and, more importantly, keep the user active to serve them another video (and ads) once the discussion is over.
### The “TikTokification” of exchanges