How to send a private message on YouTube

Preliminary operation

Before going into the details of this guide and explaining yourself in detail how to send a private message on YouTube, you should know that starting from 9 July 2018 this feature has been removed from the famous Google video sharing platform as it is not used, as indicated in the YouTube guidelines.

However, a new messaging system has been introduced that allows you to send private messages to users who have been added as friends on YouTube, as long as they have accepted the friend request received. To take advantage of this feature, you need to have a YouTube channel.

To create, therefore, one from your computer, connected to the main page of YouTube and, if you have not already done so, press the button Log in at the top right to access your account. Then choose your Google account, enter it Password in the appropriate field and click on the button NEXT. If you are reading this guide for informational purposes and do not yet have a Google account, you may find my in-depth guide to create one useful.

Now, click on yours photo (or icon oflittle man if you have not customized your Google account) at the top right, select the item My channel from the menu that appears and presses the button Create channel to create a YouTube channel using your first and last name. Alternatively, choose the option Use a company name or another type, enter a custom name for your channel in the field Nome dell'account of the brand e pulsing sul pulsating Crea.

From smartphones and tablets, start the YouTube app, tap on yours photo at the top right, select the item My channel e pulsing sul pulsating Create channel to create a new YouTube channel. In this case, however, you can only create a channel using your first and last name. To learn more, I leave you to my guide on how to create a YouTube channel.

Add friends on YouTube

Before you can send a private message on YouTube, you must send a friend request to the user of your interest. The latter, subsequently, will have to accept the request received in order to "enable" the messaging functionality.

To proceed, then connected to the main YouTube page, click on the button Messages (l'icona della arrow inside a speech bubble) at the top right and select the item Friends, dopodiché pigia sul pulsnte Add friends e fai clic sull'opzione Copy link of invitation. Now, contact the person you want to add to your YouTube friends and send him the link copied just now: the latter will have to connect to the address in question and press the button Accept to accept your friend request.

If you do not have a computer available or you prefer to add YouTube users to the list of your friends from smartphones and tablets, start the YouTube application (the white ▶ ︎ symbol on a red background), tap on the item Incoming mail present in the bottom menu and select the tab Messages.

Then choose the item Friends, pigia sul pulsating Add friends, tap on the item Share invitation link e scegli l'opzione Share link to copy the invitation link to send to the person of your interest. Then press on one of the options visible on the screen (WhatsApp, Email, Messages etc.) and you can send the link copied just now.

Alternatively, in the section Add friends, choose the item Find in contacts, pigia sul pulsating Allow to allow YouTube to access your contact list and select the person you want to add to your YouTube friends list to send an SMS containing your invitation link. Also in this case, the recipient of your request will have to open the link received and press the button Accept.

Send a private message to friends

After adding the person of your interest to your friends list, you are ready to send a private message on YouTube: from your computer, click on the button Messages (l'icona delle arrow inside a speech bubble) at the top right, choose the option Friends, click the i icon three dots present next to the friend just added and select the item Chat with [name].

In the window that opens at the bottom right, enter your message in the field write something and presses the button Submit keypad to send your message. To view the messages sent (and any replies), press the button Messages and choose the conversation of your interest by clicking on it.

To send a private message from smartphones and tablets, start the YouTube app, tap on the item Incoming mail present in the bottom menu, select the tab Messages and choose the friend you want to send a message to. If the latter is not visible on the screen Messages, choose the item Friends, select the option View all do tap sul name of the friend of your interest.

Adesso, scegli l'opzione Chat with [name], enter your message in the field write something e pulsing sul pulsating Send. It will be useful to know that by clicking on the square or icon of film, you can also privately share a YouTube video, either by searching for it by keywords or by selecting it from the list of recently watched videos.

Other solutions to send a private message on YouTube

If you are unable to send a friend request to the user you want to message with or the user has not accepted your invitation, I'm sorry to tell you that there are no other solutions to send a private message on YouTube.

However, if the user in question has associated a business contact with their YouTube channel, you can use this function and send a message to the indicated email address. To do this, connected to the main YouTube page, write the name of the channel of your interest in the field Search at the top and click on the icon magnifying glass to start the search.

Then locate the YouTube channel you are interested in and click on its name, then select the tab Information, locate the section Details e pulsing sul pulsating View email address present accanto alla voce For commercial inquiries. Then put the check mark next to the option I'm not a robot to verify your identity, press the button Send and click onemail address displayed to open the email client and send your message. If you have any problems, my guide on how to send an email might be helpful.

If in the screen Information you do not see the section Details, it means that the user in question has chosen not to show any email address. Also, it will be useful to know that this option is not visible using the YouTube app for smartphones and tablets.

How to send a private message on YouTube