YouTube introduced Stories in 2018 to keep up with the trend started by Snapchat. The idea was to provide creators with a full-screen option for engaging with their audience.

However, Stories never became popular and never fully rolled out to all users. Now, YouTube is focusing more on Shorts and Community Posts, which are gaining more traction as engagement options. As a result, YouTube is discontinuing the Stories format to prioritize these features.

According to YouTube, there are now many ways to create content on their platform, including Community posts, Shorts, long-form videos, and live streaming. Stories will no longer be available for creation starting on June 26, 2023. Existing Stories will expire seven days after they were shared.

Considering the relatively low usage of YouTube Stories, this announcement is not expected to have a significant impact on most users. However, if you're a YouTube content creator, it's advisable to shift your focus toward utilizing Shorts and Community Posts instead. Shorts, which are short-form vertical videos, have been experiencing rapid growth and offer an engaging video format for creators. Additionally, YouTube continues to introduce new functionalities to Community Posts, making them an effective tool for driving engagement and interaction with your audience.

With the availability of Shorts and the enhanced capabilities of Community Posts, it becomes clear that these options surpass the benefits provided by the Stories format. This decision by YouTube follows similar moves by other social media platforms such as Twitter, which discontinued its fleets feature, and LinkedIn, which phased out its Stories. It remains uncertain whether this trend suggests a potential demise of all social media Stories options, but only time will tell.

YouTube To Discontinue Stories In Favour Of Shorts And Community Posts