YouTube to roll out beta version of membership gifting feature

YouTube is rolling out a beta version of its gifted memberships feature, which will be available for select channels starting Wednesday, The Verge reports. Membership Gifts are YouTube’s enhancements to Twitch’s subscription feature, which viewers can use to show financial support for creators and gain access to certain perks, such as custom emojis.

Twitch users have been able to buy gift subscriptions for some time, but if users want to buy gift memberships for other fans of their YouTube channel, they haven’t been able to. On its page about the feature, YouTube said the membership gifting feature will be available in beta to a “small group of creators” first and will expand to more people “in the coming months.”

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Channels interested in trying the feature can fill out this Google form, though users first need to be eligible to enable membership, which has its own set of requirements. Gift giving will only be available to viewers using a desktop browser window — purchasing gift memberships on mobile is something YouTube plans to prepare for the feature’s full rollout.

Viewers will also have to opt-in to receive membership gifts on the channel (which could be a way to prevent harassment, as YouTube did with its version of the unannounced change). The membership gift will appear in the chat, and the user must click a link and then switch to allow gifting. You can get an idea of ​​what that experience looks like from this screenshot.

With membership gifts, your channel members can purchase a certain number of channel memberships [5, 10, 20] at one time, and YouTube will ‘gift’ these memberships to other viewers in your live stream,” YouTube said. “Viewers who receive membership gifts can enjoy your channel membership benefits within 1 month, such as loyalty badges, custom emojis, etc. Viewers who receive membership gifts do not need to pay any fees. As a creator, you can start from Get your usual share of revenue per transaction.”

The membership gift is just the latest YouTube version of a major Twitch feature rolled out to better compete with Amazon’s popular streaming service. But YouTube isn’t just competing on features — it’s also attracted some high-profile Twitch streamers, including DrLupo, TimTheTatman, Ludwig, and more.

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