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YouTube is sending the Stories feature to the fabled Google Graveyard, thus ending its attempts to compete with Instagram and Snapchat.

Like its social media rivals, YouTube Stories attempted to attract creators with ephemeral posts that only lasted a short period of time.

YouTube says that feature (previously known as Reels) will be going away on June 26, meaning there’s only a month left to go. From that point on, existing posts will expire within 7 days.

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YouTube says the decision has been made to prioritise key features like the TikTok-like Shorts and Live streamed videos as well as the traditional long form options.

“Starting on 6/26/2023 the option to create a new YouTube Story will no longer be available,” YouTube says in a community post. “Stories that are already live on that date will expire 7 days after they were originally shared.”

It probably makes sense for Google to ditch the Stories, especially given the presence of Shorts too. It makes the YouTube proposition a little less clustered. Google had initially rolled out the option for channels with over 10,000 subscribers so the vast majority of visitors to the site or app won’t have even used it.

Stories had a social media like interface, enabling users to hold down the capture button to capture a video, while there was also the option to add filters, stickers, text, and the option to trim the story before posting. However, it seems the feature hasn’t been as successful as YouTube hoped and thus the decision has been made to streamline the YouTube experience.

However, it does signal the company is waving the white flag somewhat in terms of competition head-to-head with the likes of Instagram and Snapchat.

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