Google says it’s planning to shutter its YouTube messaging service, which users have been using to chat about videos while using the platform. On September 18, the YouTube Messenger tool — used both in the browser and in the Android and iOS apps primarily to privately discuss and recommend videos within YouTube — will stop working, Google says. Some functions such as sharing videos as a message will no longer be available even before that date, according to the Google help section.
If you want to save your messages, you can do so on Google’s Takeout page. There you have to find the YouTube area and select the option “All Youtube data included.” Then remove all check marks except the one for “Chats,” confirm with “Ok” and then click “Next step,” followed by “Create archive.” Once the archive with all chats in it is finished, you will receive an email and can download your messages as a packed zip file. – dpa
