Google-owned YouTube will allow fans and creators on its platform to gift paid channel subscriptions. It rolled out a beta version of the ‘Channel Memberships Gifting’ feature that works similar to Twitch’s subscriptions. The beta is available to a small group of creators at present and will be expanded to others over the next several months, YouTube said.
YouTube further said it is working on bringing the feature to mobile soon.
The gifting feature will be available to users using the desktop browser window. YouTube will let the eligible and interested channels enable memberships. “With Memberships Gifting, channel members can buy a set of channel memberships in a single purchase, which YouTube will gift out to other viewers in your live stream. Viewers who receive a gift membership, get one month of access to channel membership perks such as loyalty badges, custom emoji,” YouTube said. The receivers do not pay any charges, it further said. Viewers will have to opt-in to be able to receive gifted memberships on a channel, The Verge reported.
According to the video streaming service provider, channel members have to click the $ button next to the live chat to purchase gift memberships on live streams. YouTube gifts memberships to viewers based on their interaction on the channel. The application also notifiesviewers with a personal live chat message and an email if they receive a gift membership.