EXCLUSIVE: YouTube is cooking up something new called ’Tamba,’ and it looks pretty social

YouTube has dabbled in social features over the years, but it looks like the company is now experimenting with something more ambitious. Code and assets in the latest version of the YouTube app hint at an experimental social experience called “Tamba,” complete with followers, direct messages, group chats, and its own posts.

While digging through version 21.44.534 of the YouTube app for Android, we came across Tamba’s branding. A logo asset named “yt_sandbox_topbar_logo_white,” which appears designed for the experience’s top bar, shows the word “Tamba” in a bold typeface next to a squiggly, scribble-like shape with a play button cut out of its center.

A separate icon, “yt_fill_experimental_youtube_sandbox,” uses that same scribble-and-play-button mark on its own, which could serve as Tamba’s app icon.

The icon set includes home, search, create, camera, inbox, chat, stickers, a microphone, and a person with a plus sign. The code also names icons for a crown, a lock, a locked bookmark, and a game controller, though artwork for those isn’t in the app yet. Together, these point to a navigation layout closer to Instagram than to YouTube.

Meanwhile, the Tamba logo is tied to a package name, “com.google.android.youtube.sandbox,” which YouTube’s code treats as a separate app. The YouTube app checks whether it’s running as this package and changes its behavior accordingly, and the sandbox package even gets its own search suggestion and file providers, just like a standalone app would.

We also spotted dedicated “ANDROID_SANDBOX” and “IOS_SANDBOX” client identifiers, suggesting Google could be building Tamba for both Android and iPhone. There are also references to a dedicated onboarding page and an activity page for the experience.

Tamba may be more experiment than product

The “sandbox” name is worth pausing on, though. In the world of software, a sandbox usually refers to an isolated space for experimenting without affecting the main product, and Tamba’s custom icons are also labeled “experimental” in the code.

This suggests Tamba could be a testing ground where YouTube tries out social features, possibly with a limited group of users, rather than a polished product headed for a wide launch. That said, Tamba doesn’t look like a simple internal test build of YouTube. The code already references a separate “com.google.android.youtube.test” package for that, and Tamba comes with features the main YouTube app doesn’t have, along with strings for onboarding new users.

What makes this discovery particularly interesting is what Tamba could do. The code includes dozens of new notification types that read like they belong to a social media app rather than a video platform. Users could follow each other, send and approve follow requests, and exchange direct messages, photos, and videos, both one-on-one and in group chats. There are also strings for hearts on posts, Shorts, and comments, as well as replies that can include voice notes or even a Short.

A few of these stand out. The follow request strings suggest Tamba could support private profiles, something YouTube doesn’t really offer today. The “PREONBOARD_NEW_FOLLOWER” string also hints that people may be able to follow you before you’ve even signed up. Meanwhile, the last two strings suggest Shorts can be played from within Tamba chats and from the app’s bottom navigation bar, and they refer to the effort as “Project Sandbox.” We’re not sure what the “mini app” reference means just yet.

That said, it’s worth noting that YouTube is already bringing social features to its main app. It has been expanding in-app private messaging, which lets you invite friends to chat and share videos without leaving YouTube, and the company has said it plans to bring group chats in the next few months. So some of what we’re seeing in Tamba’s code may overlap with features that are already rolling out in YouTube itself, and Tamba could simply be the place where YouTube tests these ideas before they land in the main app.

We don’t know what the name Tamba means, and it doesn’t appear anywhere in the app’s code beyond the logo itself, so it could just be a placeholder. It’s also possible that Tamba’s features eventually end up within the main YouTube app rather than in a standalone download.

Since these features are still buried in the app’s code and appear to be experimental, it’s too early to say when or if Tamba will reach users. We’ll keep digging and let you know as soon as we learn more.