The in-application messaging features YouTube has been testing at least since last May launched Wednesday, but only in Canada.
Google product manager Shimrit Ben Yair spoke with Josh McConnell of Financial Post, saying that users of YouTube?s iOS and Android applications in Canada can now tap a new share button to directly share videos with other users.
Users can also launch group conversations, which include interactive features such as awarding hearts to videos, McConnell reported, adding that rooms can be named and videos can be moved around the screen so users can continue chatting.

Why Canada" Ben Yair told McConnell: We wanted to start with Canada because Canadians are sharing 15 percent more videos than the average user, so it?s interesting to see that this is actually a behavior that happens more in Canada. We launched this feature as an experiment last year (to a small group), and now we are rolling it out worldwide.
We thought this was a nice way to expand and really answer a need that exists in the market.
Readers: What are your initial impressions of YouTube?s new messaging features"
Screenshot courtesy of Josh McConnell, Financial Post.

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