Google will remove YouTube’s Webcam Capture feature — which lets users record videos with webcams right on YouTube with no uploading required — after January 16, 2016. When you use Webcam Capture now, you’ll see a little warning near the top of the screen about the feature’s upcoming disappearance.
Webcam Capture first showed up way back in 2006, a short time after Google acquired YouTube. It uses Adobe Flash, and it’s accessible through YouTube’s upload page. But these days the feature is just not popular.
“Previously, if you had a webcam built in or connected to your computer, you could record a webcam video on YouTube and upload it directly to the site,” the update to the support page states. “This feature will be turned off because it is rarely used and is built on technology that is no longer supported.”
YouTube is one of the most popular services on the Internet, with more than 1 billion users. People spend a lot of time on the service. On mobile, the average viewing session is 40 minutes long. But that doesn’t mean the service will stay stagnant.
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The support page points out that users can still record webcam videos through apps like Photo Booth on Mac and Camera on Windows and then upload them through the YouTube site. Cameras on mobile devices can record videos that can then be uploaded through the YouTube app.
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