YouTube is experimenting with new ways to engage with fans by giving creators the ability to post voice notes and reply to comments on their videos, the company announced Monday.
The ability to post voice memos is currently limited to certain creators in the United States. YouTube says these audio comments can only be posted to your own channel via the iOS YouTube app.
Creators who have this feature enabled can tap the new soundwave icon when replying to a comment, record their reply, and post it as a comment.
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Only some creators can post audio comments, but comments can be heard by anyone. If you don't want to play the audio memo, you'll also see a transcript button below the audio memo to read the comments.
The company said it hopes the experiment will lead to “more meaningful relationships” between creators and fans in the future.
This year, YouTube has focused on building features around community and fan engagement. In March, the platform began allowing creators to share exclusive short videos with their subscribers. In September, the company rolled out Discord-like spaces within creators' channels, allowing fans of the creators (particularly their subscribers) to have discussions.