Google is one of the most technologically powerful companies in human history.
YouTube is one of the most successful digital products ever created.
Which makes the current state of YouTube's social layer look less like strategy and more like a decade-long refusal to acknowledge the obvious.
1. YouTube Is Already a Social Platform
YouTube comments aren't just a feature beneath videos.
They are:
- sustained conversations
- repeated interactions between the same people
- conflicts and communities
- accumulated memory
- context and identity
By every objective measure, this is a social network — existing in practice but never acknowledged in principle.
Ignoring this reality doesn't eliminate its consequences. It just makes them unmanageable.
2. A User's Perspective: Sociality Without Memory
I'm a regular YouTube user. Not a creator, not an influencer, not media.
I'm just someone who writes comments — sometimes short, sometimes detailed, sometimes diving into discussions.
And that's where the problem becomes impossible to ignore.
YouTube regularly hosts meaningful conversations:
- with video creators
- with other viewers
- with people who add context, challenge ideas, or share expertise
Sometimes the real value lives in the comments:
- where context emerges
- where details get clarified
- where the discussion becomes more valuable than the video itself
But these conversations have one fundamental problem: you can't return to them.
Lost Conversations
When I participate in a discussion:
- I can't see a list of all my comments with their engagement and replies
- I can't track how conversations evolved
- I can't intentionally continue a discussion days, weeks, or months later
The only way to "return" is if YouTube happens to send a notification about a new reply.
This happens irregularly, unpredictably, with no logic or system.
Sometimes I'll open a video from 2, 3, or 5 years ago and discover:
- my comment
- hundreds of likes
- dozens of replies — yes, some spam and trolling, but also smart, valuable, interesting perspectives
"There was a real conversation here. It could have continued.
But it died not because people lost interest,
but because the platform gave it no tools to survive."
The social value existed. The interface to preserve it never did.
3. The Risks Aren't Unique
The arguments against developing social features are well-known:
- toxicity
- moderation complexity
- legal and regulatory risks
But these problems aren't unique to YouTube.
They're actively managed by:
- Meta
- X
- Discord
Ignoring risks doesn't make them disappear.
It just leaves them unstructured and unmanaged.
4. Google Spent Decades Searching for Social — While Sitting on It
Over the past twenty years, Google has invested tens of billions of dollars in social products:
- Orkut
- Buzz
- Wave
- Google+
- dozens of shuttered initiatives
All of them tried to create sociality from scratch.
Meanwhile, Google already owned a product where sociality:
- emerged organically
- scaled naturally
- proved sustainable
- still exists today
This paradox can't be explained by technology.
It demands honest acknowledgment.
5. A Separate Product Isn't a Threat — It's the Logical Move
This isn't about rebuilding YouTube.
This is about spinning off the social layer as a standalone product:
- separate app
- separate UX
- separate metrics
- separate team
- separate moderation infrastructure
Following a proven model:
Facebook → Messenger
This approach:
- doesn't break YouTube
- doesn't interfere with the ad model
- doesn't change recommendation algorithms
- doesn't touch the core product
But it transforms chaotic sociality into a deliberate tool for conversation.
6. If a Product Isn't Feasible — Open the API
If Google isn't ready to launch a standalone product, there's a second, equally rational path:
Provide full API access for users to their:
- comments
- conversation history
- engagement metrics
- discussion threads
This would enable third-party developers to build:
- alternative interfaces
- conversation products
- analytics tools
- solutions for context and memory
Today, YouTube Data API v3 is intentionally limited at exactly this point. The current API requires knowing the videoId for each comment — getting a list of all your comments with metrics is simply impossible.
This doesn't look like security. It looks like ecosystem lockdown.
7. The Current State Is the Worst Possible Option
Right now:
- sociality exists
- the interface doesn't
- memory is absent
- conversations are lost
- users are frustrated
This isn't a neutral state.
This is a social layer without form.
8. It's Not About Resources or Technology
Google has:
- financial capacity
- human resources
- AI capabilities
- infrastructure
- global moderation experience
The only thing missing is willingness to call this what it is.
YouTube isn't just video.
Comments aren't noise.
Users aren't just viewers.
9. This Isn't an Attack — It's an Invitation to Talk
Maybe the problem isn't strategy.
Maybe the problem is that inside a massive system, nobody states this directly.
This manifesto is an attempt to do exactly that.
Not for conflict.
Not for attention.
But so the obvious stops being invisible.
10. What Happens Next?
This manifesto is the start of a conversation, not the end.
If you're:
- a developer who's hit the same limitations
- a user who's lost valuable conversations
- someone at Google ready to discuss this honestly
— let's talk openly.
This problem won't solve itself.
But it can be solved if people stop ignoring it.