A built-in sharing feature for YouTube has been in various forms of testing for months, but it is now live for all Canadian YouTube users. You read that correctly - Canada actually received a feature first.

YouTube says they went with Canada first because, on average, users there share videos 15% more often than other global users. Starting today, Canadians will see a new Shared tab in the mobile YouTube app, which serves as a list of ongoing conversations.

Once you add your family and friends as contacts, you can easily share videos without leaving the app. As you might expect from a messaging platform, you can also send normal text messages and create groups. Unfortunately, there's no SMS fallback (/s).

Although the feature seems to be executed well, the question begs to be asked - why? Perhaps Google is determined to create as many messaging services as possible, with YouTube now joining Hangouts, Allo, Duo, Spaces, and Messenger. The blog post claims that sharing videos on mobile before today required users to, "copy and paste a link into an email or messaging app to share the moment." Did they forget Android's built-in share functionality?

Interestingly, the feature is invite-only outside Canada. Once you enlist a Canadian friend to send you anything, you will receive the Share tab yourself.

Source: Canada Google Blog