YouTubers Can Interact With Viewers Via Live Text, Videos, GIFs

Have a favorite YouTuber? Soon, it may be a lot easier to interact with them.

Google on Tuesday introduced YouTube Community, a new tool designed to help broadcasters connect with their fans. From the new Community tab on their YouTube channel, creators will be able to interact with viewers via live text, videos, images, animated GIFs, and more.

As a viewer, you'll be able to see these posts in the Subscriptions feed on your phone, or you can opt to get a notification any time your favorite YouTuber posts.

In a blog post announcing the new feature, YouTube Senior Product Manager Kiley McEvoy said it "represents the deepest product collaboration we've ever done with creators."

At this point, it's still pretty limited, however. Google today launched the feature in beta with a handful of YouTubers, including John & Hank Green, to AsapSCIENCE, The Game Theorists, Karmin, The Key of Awesome, The Kloons, Lilly Singh, Peter Hollens, Rosianna Halse Rojas, Sam Tsui, Threadbanger, and VSauce3.

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"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," McEvoy wrote.

The new tool comes after YouTube in June launched mobile live streaming to take on Facebook Live and Periscope. Now, you can just tap the red capture button inside the YouTube app, take or select a photo to use as a thumbnail, and broadcast to fans in near real time. YouTube live streaming comes with all the same features as regular videos: search, recommendations, playlists, and protection from unauthorized uses.