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Google removing YouTube Stories from platform

Google says a YouTube product launched in 2017 will be removed from the platform in favor of prioritizing other features on the site.
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Google said YouTube Stories will soon be removed from the platform to prioritize other features on the site. 

Google says users will no longer be able to create new YouTube Stories starting June 26. Stories already up on YouTube will remain up for seven days after they were originally shared.

Google said its Community and Shorts are good alternatives for users. 

"YouTube Community posts are a great choice if you want to share lightweight updates, start conversations, or promote your YouTube content to your audience," wrote YouTube community manager Meaghan Sullivan. "Amongst creators who use both posts and Stories, posts on average drive many times more comments and likes compared to Stories."

But she said YouTube Shorts remains a good option for short videos.

"YouTube Shorts is the way to go if you want to create short video content or reach a new audience," she wrote. "Amongst creators who use both Shorts and Stories, Shorts on average drive many times more subscribers than Stories."

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The product launched in 2017 and has similar features to Snapchat. Stories was originally named “Reels” before becoming Stories in 2018. 

"We want to do even more to give you easy ways to express yourself and engage with fans, so today we're also unveiling a new feature. Reels are YouTube's spin on the popular 'Stories' format, but designed specifically for YouTube creators," YouTube wrote in 2017. "We learned that you want the flexibility to create multiple Reels and have them not expire, so we'll give you those options. We're also bringing creator-focused features like linking to YouTube videos and YouTube-y stickers. Just like we did with Community, we'll be experimenting with a beta version of Reels to learn and improve the product before expanding to more creators."