Lately, I’ve been obsessed with Youtube... 

Because of the cord-cutting generation, and the increasing quality of portable cameras, I feel like user generated content is on the rise. You may say that I’m late to the game on this one. While that may be true, I still feel like there is a void.

My main thought was, what would TV look like in the future? What sparked my curiosity was all of the current platforms and how people are sharing videos on Youtube, Facebook, and Instagram. Now, Facebook Live and Instagram Live are popular (effectively killing Periscope…but it think it was already dead…) But the point is people are sharing more and more video. Daily vlogging is becoming the norm. Think of people like Casey Neistat who created videos everyday, with an audience of MILLIONS. People are creating more and more content, but I feel like the ways of discovering it are still the same.

A friend will shoot me a text and say, check out this video, or post it to “Insta” and tag me or a group of friends. While that works, it’s not really suitable for long form content. On top of that, it’s locked within the app or service.

Also, there are a lot of content creators, but what about the content watchers. THEY are the ones that share the videos. And my main thought is…I want to see what my friends are watching. Enter Youtube Streams.

Once you are logged in, you can subscribe to your friends streams. So now, your probably like “What is a stream?”

Streams are different than channels. With the addition of streams, I’ve essentially classified both types of Youtube users, content creators and viewers, but given a viewers a passive way to participate.

Originally, viewers can watch, comment, and subscribe. That functionality still exists, but in addition, they passively create their own playlist of videos that others can watch.

Youtube Stream is an “Opt In” approach, offering two ways to participate. You can have every video you watch added to your stream (Constant Stream), or you can select videos to add (Curated Stream). Now, I know you may be thinking… “I don’t want everyone to know what I’m watching on Youtube!” The constant stream isn’t for you. I really wanted to establish the idea that it is a “stream” of thoughts that you share, no matter the context.

Once “turned on”… Streams are a fun new way to surf Youtube! Youtube now looks different. One thing I wanted to point out is that having a curated stream is similar to the existing “Watch Later” functionality. Similar to “Watch Later” you don’t actually have to watch a video to add it to your stream. Just hover over the video thumbnail, and the options will appear.

A stream will always start on a video that you HAVEN’T already seen. It will automatically remove the ones you have. You can advance through a persons stream to see whats coming, or skip ahead. If you skip videos, they will still be available within the stream when you come back.

Once you click on a video, the player will launch into fullscreen. You can see the stream that you are watching above, as well as access the full stream of videos upon rollover.

All in all, Im surprised that this isn’t a function of YouTube already. I think that it would be a really interesting idea if made into reality, and provide a constant stream of things to watch online if you don’t have cable.

Like I said above, this is just a concept or an idea that I created in 3 days, so please comment below and let me know what you think. Or if this is a feature already…how to access it. Cheers!