YouTube Brings New Direct Messaging Features to More European Countries

YouTube recently revived a direct messaging feature it previously added and then removed from its mobile app a couple of years ago. The new DM feature first went live in Ireland and Poland in November, and the company quietly announced this week (via PiunikaWeb) that it has expanded it to over 30 European countries.

I got access to this new experimental feature, which is available via the app’s Notifications tab. There’s a new Messages section at the top with a link to invite other YouTube users to start a chat conversation.

As of today, this new messaging feature is only available for adults 18 years or older in France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, and other European countries (you can check the full list here). To be eligible, YouTube users also need to verify their age in their Google account and create a YouTube channel if they haven’t already (you can watch, like videos, and subscribe to YouTube channels with a Google Account without creating a channel).

The YouTube team previously said that private messaging has been a top-requested feature, which doesn’t explain why YouTube killed a similar feature back in 2019. Anyway, now that Instagram, TikTok, and Twitch support direct messages, it’s time for YouTube to finally catch up.