{"id":927372,"date":"2026-08-15T14:20:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T19:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/15\/youtube-expands-direct-messaging-to-the-us\/"},"modified":"2026-08-15T14:20:00","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T19:20:00","slug":"youtube-expands-direct-messaging-to-the-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/15\/youtube-expands-direct-messaging-to-the-us\/","title":{"rendered":"YouTube expands direct messaging to the US"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wrapper\">\n<p><main id=\"main\" role=\"main\" data-post-type=\"articles\"><\/p>\n<div id=\"content\">\n<div>\n<p>The experimental feature launched in Europe last year.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<div data-post-url=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/2191994\/youtube-direct-messaging\/\" data-post-title=\"YouTube expands direct messaging to the US\" data-slide-num=\"0\" data-post-id=\"2191994\">\n<picture id=\"p034bf5c7d10135a944d28c66fe9be572\"><source media=\"(min-width: 429px)\"  type=\"image\/webp\"><source media=\"(max-width: 428px)\"  type=\"image\/webp\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/img\/gallery\/youtube-expands-direct-messaging-to-the-us\/intro-1781166419.jpg\" data-slide-url=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/2191994\/youtube-direct-messaging\/\" data-post-id=\"2191994\" data-slide-num=\"0\" data-slide-title=\"YouTube expands direct messaging to the US: \" width=\"780\" height=\"438\" alt=\"YouTube app on a phone.\">\n                    <\/picture>\n<p><span>Lixu\/Getty Images<\/span>\n                    <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>YouTube&#8217;s experimental direct messaging feature for mobile is <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.youtube\/news-and-events\/youtube-in-app-video-sharing-messaging\/\" target=\"_blank\">now available in the US<\/a>. The Google-owned video-sharing platform <a href=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/entertainment\/youtube\/youtube-is-once-again-trying-to-make-dms-happen-205724221.html\" target=\"_blank\">started testing DMs<\/a> late last year in Ireland and Poland, before expanding it to more European countries in March. Now, you can also give it a try if you&#8217;re 18 and older in the US. This isn&#8217;t the first time YouTube has introduced a direct messaging feature. It launched one in 2017 and then <a href=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/2019-08-20-youtube-killing-direct-messaging.html\" target=\"_blank\">killed it<\/a> two years later in 2019 to encourage more public conversations in the comments section.<\/p>\n<p>In its announcement when it launched its renewed effort to bring DMs to its platform, YouTube said that it has been a top feature request. This rollout builds on the positive feedback it&#8217;s gotten from the the countries where it has been live for the past few months. To use the feature, just tap the Messages button that you&#8217;ll see on the top right corner of the YouTube app and then tap &#8220;Invite to chat.&#8221; You can send the invite to anybody on the platform you want to talk to, and they will have the power to choose whether to Accept or Decline it.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>You probably already use a plethora of messaging apps \u2014\u00a0I\u00a0know I do \u2014 but the idea is to make it easier to share YouTube videos and Reels to your friends. That said, YouTube makes it clear that you&#8217;ll still be able to easily send videos through your other apps even if you&#8217;re now part of the experiment. YouTube says it will expand DM testing even further, so it may be available to you in the future if your country doesn&#8217;t have access to it yet.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>    <\/main><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/2191994\/youtube-direct-messaging\/\" class=\"button purchase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The experimental feature launched in Europe last year. Lixu\/Getty Images YouTube&#8217;s experimental direct messaging feature for mobile is now available in the US. The Google-owned video-sharing platform started testing DMs late last year in Ireland and Poland, before expanding it to more European countries in March. Now, you can also give it a try if [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":927373,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4352,49,104640],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-927372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-expands","category-youtube","category-youtube-videos"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/927372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=927372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/927372\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/927373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=927372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=927372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=927372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}