After testing it out with selected users over the past couple of months, YouTube is now rolling out its "Add Yours" sticker for Shorts to all users.

As you can see in this example, the "Add Yours" sticker encourages participatory content, by prompting viewers to create their own takes on Shorts clips.

Seems familiar? That's because it's a replica of the exact same feature on Instagram, which itself was adapted from TikTok’s Duet option. And so, the great circle of social media life continues, in which platforms just copy and paste from each other into oblivion, in the hopes of keeping users within their own apps, as opposed to losing them for the latest trending functions.

Which clearly works, because they all keep doing it, and it saves money on conducting your own R & D. So, win-win, I guess. The only risk is that you lose any point of differentiation, and eventually, every app and offering starts to feel the same. 

Evidently, homogenization isn't considered a major barrier for the platforms. 

YouTube Shorts (which itself is also an example of social media replication) has grown fast over the past year, and is now averaging of over 70 billion cumulative daily views. Encouraging more participation leads to even more content being added into the mix, and more engagement, so it makes sense that YouTube would look to add this feature.

It's just more of the same, in more places. 

That may not be a bad thing, and with TikTok potentially leaving the U.S. soon, it could actually help in scooping up cast-offs from the app. But it's a little generic.

I mean, that's the point, but I'd rather see new features.