Six years after YouTube kicked direct messages to the curb, the platform is bringing them back.
Announced Wednesday after six months of testing, YouTube now allows users to share videos through a rebooted messaging feature. In Nov. 2025, platform owner Google described DMs as a “top feature request.”
YouTubers Dan and Phil built one of the internet’s most loyal (and intense) fan communities
Direct messages will appear on YouTube’s app as a new messaging icon, through which you can send an invite to friends to share videos. Users will be able to accept or decline the invite, in a move that’ll hopefully tackle spam and creeps. The only catch is that you’ll need to be over 18 with your age verified, and signed in to a personal YouTube channel with your Google Account to send them.
The new DMs icon sits next to “Cast”.
Credit: YouTube / Mashable edit
YouTube removed direct messages from the platform in 2019, two years after launching them in 2017. At the time Google said it was “reevaluating our priorities” and instead focusing on updates to public conversations like comments and posts.
Mashable Light Speed
Direct messages will now be rolled out on YouTube in the U.S., UK, Brazil, and Singapore, having already been available from March across European countries including Spain, Ireland, Croatia, France, Bulgaria, Italy, Germany, Greece, Austria, Poland, Belgium, and more.
In its announcement, YouTube said its Community Guidelines will apply to all shared content and messages. As Mashable’s Matt Binder reported during YouTube’s testing phase, YouTube “will uphold its moderation policies for content sent via direct message as it would with public content, and will review flagged material.”
It’s a long overdue reissue for YouTube, considering practically every other social media and video platform, from TikTok to Instagram to Threads, has a DM feature.
Want more tech news straight to your inbox? Sign up for Mashable’s Top Stories newsletter.
