YouTube is launching Gifted Memberships in beta, and it will be available to choose channels starting Wednesday. Memberships are YouTube’s Twitch subscriptions, which viewers can use to show financial support to creators and get certain perks like custom emojis. Twitch users have been able to buy gift subscriptions for some time, but whether you want to buy membership gifts for other fans of a YouTube channel, you won’t be able to.
The Grant Memberships beta will be available to “a small group of creators” to start and will be expanded to include more “over the next several months,” YouTube says on a page about the feature . Channels interested in trying out the feature can fill out this Google form , although you’ll need to already be eligible to enable memberships in the first place, which has its own set of requirements . The gifts will only be available to viewers who use a desktop browser window to get started — buying gift memberships on mobile is something YouTube plans to implement for the full launch of the feature.
Viewers will also have to subscribe to be able to get gifted memberships on a channel (which could be a way to prevent harassment, like changes made by YouTube). The given memberships will appear in the chat, you will have to click on a link and then the toggle switch to allow gifts.
“By gifting a membership, your channel members can purchase a specified number of channel memberships [5, 10, 20] in one purchase, and YouTube will ‘present them’ to other viewers in the live stream,” YouTube says. “Viewers who get a membership as a gift get one month access to your channel membership benefits like loyalty badges, custom emojis, and more. Viewers who receive gift memberships pay no fees, and as the creator, you receive your usual revenue share from each transaction.”
