Google-owned video hosting site YouTube has entered the social networking space with a new product called YouTube Community.

The new service is being pitched as a way to help “strengthen the bond” between creators and viewers by allowing YouTube content creators to engage with their viewers between video uploads by allowing them to share text, live videos, images, animated GIFs and more. Viewers will be able to view these social posts through the subscription feed on their phones and can also opt into receiving notifications of new posts if they’re really keen to know what their favorite YouTube stars are posting.

News that YouTube was building a social network of sorts first emerged in August when the new service went by the working name of YouTube Backstage. It’s not clear from YouTube’s announcement post how far the social networking aspects go, but it was previously rumored that content posted by content creators could also be made available to share on other services, for example, a funny picture shared on YouTube could be sent to Twitter, Facebook or other services, setting up YouTube to become a hosting service for content a la Instagram or Imgur.

No-brainer

The move by YouTube to given content creators the ability to communicate with their fans in a social networking style way is a no-brainer for the site, given that its main competition for video hosting in 2016 is social networking sites including Facebook Inc. and Snapchat Inc. Google’s past insistence that YouTube is a social network never convinced many people.

As we said last month:

The good news for YouTube is that it’s not too late for the service to evolve into a social network of sorts, even if it will never replace Facebook. Becoming a social network will deliver more eyeballs and the ability for YouTube stars to be able to use the service to communicate more directly with their fans.

YouTube Community is launching as a closed beta only, with YouTube stars John and Hank Green, AsapSCIENCE, The Game Theorists, Karmin, The Key of Awesome, The Kloons, Lilly Singh, Peter Hollens, Rosianna Halse Rojas, Sam Tsui, Threadbanger and VSauce3 the first to use the service.

The site promised only that “we look forward to bringing more [content creators] onboard.” It did not give a timeframe as to when this might happen, adding only, “This is a first step and, with creator and fan feedback, we look forward to rolling out new features and functions as well as including more creators in the months ahead.”

Image credit: YouTube/screenshot