Discord begins testing YouTube integration after closing two of its programs

The Discord platform has begun testing YouTube integration, weeks after the Google-owned YouTube platform forced two popular Discord music programs to close. YouTube integration has begun appearing on a small number of Discord servers as part of what appears to be a new test of collaboration between the two platforms.

The feature is called Watch Together, and as the name suggests, it allows members of the platform to watch YouTube videos together. A similar feature was initially tested 10 months ago before it disappeared and reappeared as Watch Together. The platform has apparently reprioritized this feature due to the recent shutdown of music bots.

Watch Together is very similar to the experience of someone casting their screen to Discord, and a play button appears alongside video and screen sharing options. It was specifically designed with YouTube in mind, allowing platform server members to create a playlist of YouTube videos by searching or pasting YouTube links. You can even toggle a remote button that allows other platform server members to share the ability to control playback.

Although it's not identical to the popular Rythm and Groovy music bots, you can use Watch Together to listen to music through YouTube in Discord. The platform warns when you use Watch Together for the first time that you may see ads during YouTube videos. The feature allows Discord servers to create playlists via YouTube.

The addition of ads and the potential earnings opportunity for the Google-owned YouTube platform comes weeks after YouTube started shutting down Discord music shows. The Google-owned company sent a legal cease and desist letter to the Groovy bot last month. This forced the famous service to stop within days. Then YouTube turned its attention to its most popular music bot, Rythm, which went out of business earlier this month.

Integration is currently available across a very limited number of servers. But reports say that testing is expected to expand over the next few weeks. The platform initially aims to roll out the feature to all users by the end of October. And if you're interested in testing the feature, it's currently available on the Game Labs server in Discord.