Is YouTube trying to steal jobs from Facebook and IG? Mysterious new service exposed with strong sense of community

YouTube is not just for watching videos, it may also transform into a social platform in the future! Foreign media discovered that YouTube is suspected of developing a new service called "Tamba". In addition to private messages and group chats, it may also support functions such as tracking each other and posting messages among friends.

According to foreign media reports, researchers accidentally dug up clues about Tamba in the code of the latest version of the Android YouTube App (21.44.534). Not only did they find the exclusive logo, but they also found as many as 38 interface icons, including chat, camera, hearts, stickers, microphones, etc. The overall design style is obviously different from the existing YouTube, but closer to social apps such as Instagram.

The exposed code shows that Tamba may have quite complete social functions, including tracking friends, sending tracking requests, private messages, group chats, posting, and voice replies.

However, the "sandbox" label also appears in the code, suggesting that Tamba may be just a platform used by YouTube to test experimental community features, rather than a product that has been developed and is ready to be officially launched.

In fact, YouTube has continued to strengthen its community functions in recent years. In 2025, it resurrected the private messaging function, allowing users to share videos directly within the app. In June this year, it further expanded the testing scope of the private messaging function. It is currently only open in some countries and has not yet been fully launched. In addition, YouTube has also recently announced that it will add a group chat function, showing that the official is actively strengthening the social interaction experience within the platform.

As for how Tamba will develop, it is still full of unknowns at this stage. It is unclear whether it will be integrated into YouTube in the future or whether it will be integrated into YouTube or create an independent social app. Google has not officially announced Tamba, there is no exact launch time, and the possibility of final cancellation of development cannot be ruled out.