When I sit down for a YouTube session, I often think: how cool would it be if I was able to message my friends through YouTube? I don't even have to leave the app/website to do it, and it'd be so much easier if I could message here than on Facebook, Hangouts, or SMS. Awesome!

For some utterly bizarre reason, YouTube is getting in-app messaging. The tab has been appearing on a small number of Android devices over the last 48 hours or so, and Wired published a post explaining the new feature. Apparently, users can get others into the service by inviting them to chat. The tips we've received about this so far indicate it's not quite ready to go live yet - blank screens and network errors abound - but it should happen soon. This is supposedly to get consumers to share more videos inside YouTube, getting them to watch more content and keeping the ad revenue up.

The YouTube Messages tab, showing a blank screen and connection issues.

Either way, it'll probably work much like any other messaging service. I send you a message, you send me one back. Etc. Might be worth remembering that YouTube does have a Messages section already, but it doesn't seem that prominent - mine says 'no messages to display,' although this might differ if others have more content uploaded.

An app update doesn't seem to be required for messages - all that's needed is an invite from someone who already has the feature.

Source: Wired

Thanks: Hồ Ngọc Bảo and Никита Кабаков