New Tools for Creators: YouTube Create, AI Backgrounds, and Analytics Updates

YouTube is continuing to expand its ecosystem of tools designed to lower the barrier to entry for new creators while integrating artificial intelligence into the creative workflow. From a new dedicated editing app to AI-driven research and dubbing tools, the platform is focusing heavily on accessibility and automation.

The Launch of the YouTube Create App

As of Thursday, the YouTube Create app is officially available. Positioned as a basic video editing solution, the app is designed to provide a streamlined experience for those who may not have access to—or the expertise for—professional post-production software.

Core Features and Functionality

The app delivers a set of essential tools that align with the needs of mobile-first creators. Key features include:

• Built-in Overlays: YouTube provides a variety of overlays that can be dropped directly into projects.
• Music Library: The app integrates a music library, allowing creators to add soundtracks to their videos without leaving the application.
• Visual Enhancements: Users can add stickers, GIFs, and various effects to make their content more engaging.
• Basic Editing Tools: The app includes simple trimming and text addition tools to help structure a video.

The Nuances of Licensed Music

While the integration of the YouTube Audio Library is a significant advantage for beginners, it comes with a necessary caveat. Because the music is licensed through YouTube, it is available for use within the ecosystem, but creators should not assume that this grants them unlimited freedom.

In many professional editing environments, using specific tracks requires additional payments or separate licensing agreements. While the YouTube Create app simplifies this process, creators should remain mindful of the specific terms of the YouTube Audio Library to ensure their content remains compliant and monetizable.

The Risk of Visual Saturation

One of the primary concerns with a tool available to billions of users is the “saturation effect.” When a wide array of creators use the same stickers, GIFs, and effects, those elements can quickly become repetitive and lose their impact.

To combat this, YouTube is expected to release additional asset packages to maintain variety. However, for Creators looking to build a unique brand identity, relying solely on built-in presets may be a mistake. To stand out, it is advisable to maintain a personal reference library or commission custom overlays and GIFs from artists. This ensures that your visual style remains distinct rather than blending into a sea of identical AI-generated or preset effects.

Who is this app for?

Ultimately, YouTube Create is an introductory tool. It is an excellent starting point for beginners who are intimidated by complex timelines and professional software. However, for established Creators who already utilize professional editing suites, the app is likely too imprecise to serve as a primary replacement.

AI-Generated Backgrounds with DreamScreen

Beyond editing, YouTube is experimenting with generative AI to enhance the visual storytelling of Shorts. A new feature called “DreamScreen” is currently being tested in the YouTube Shorts camera.

What is DreamScreen?

DreamScreen allows Creators to generate AI-driven backgrounds for their Shorts. Instead of relying on a physical set or a green screen with a pre-recorded video, Creators can describe a scene, and the AI will generate a background to fit the narrative. This feature is expected to roll out to all Creators by early 2024.

Potential Conflicts with Monetization Policies

The introduction of DreamScreen brings up an interesting contradiction regarding YouTube’s monetization policies. According to the platform’s guidelines, automatically generated content that does not add significant original value can be flagged or penalized.

This creates a grey area: if a Creator over-relies on AI-generated backgrounds without adding their own unique commentary, creativity, or value, they could potentially run afoul of these policies. There is a possibility that channels overusing these automated features could face exclusion from the YouTube Partner Program unless YouTube revises its policies to specifically accommodate these new AI tools.

Breaking Language Barriers with Aloud

AI is also being leveraged to solve one of the biggest challenges for global growth: language. Google is currently incubating a startup called “Aloud,” which specializes in converting AI transcripts into high-quality speech.

How Aloud Works

Unlike traditional text-to-speech tools that often sound robotic, Aloud aims to create natural-sounding dubbed audio. Currently, the tool is functional for translating English subtitles into Spanish or Portuguese. Testing is already underway for several other European and Asian languages.

Integration into YouTube Studio

The long-term goal is a solid integration of Aloud directly into YouTube Studio. This would allow Creators to dub their content into multiple languages without needing to hire voice actors or use external software.

While there is no exact timeline for this rollout, the complexity of natural-sounding AI speech suggests that a fully market-ready, integrated version may take a significant amount of time—potentially two to three years—to be perfected. For Creators, this represents a massive opportunity to scale content globally, such as translating English-language Patreon or main-channel content into other languages to reach new audiences.

AI Upgrades in the Research Tab

Finally, YouTube is bringing AI into the analytical side of content creation. The Research tab within YouTube Analytics is receiving an upgrade to help Creators overcome creative blocks and optimize their content strategy.

AI-Driven Brainstorming

The updated Research tab will allow Creators to explore AI-generated video topics that are likely to interest their specific audience. Rather than guessing what will trend, the AI will brainstorm and suggest:

• Video Ideas: Topics based on current viewer interests and search trends.
• Potential Titles: Suggestions for titles designed to capture attention and improve click-through rates.

Availability and Rollout

This feature is not yet available to everyone. It is initially launching in the major markets where English, South Korean, and Hindi are spoken.

The rollout for English content will begin with small test groups of 20-24 Creators. Once the feature is refined based on this initial feedback, it is expected to be rolled out to the wider Creator community. If you have a significant portion of your audience in these regions, you can expect to see these AI brainstorming tools in your YouTube Studio analytics in the near future.

Original transcript

Transcript

The YouTube Create app is available as of Thursday, and as announced, it’s a very basic video editing app. It includes exactly what we expected: overlays provided by YouTube and a built-in music library, which I think is a good thing. This means that beginners using this app will have access to licensed music. However, in my opinion, it should be made clearer that you can’t just use any songs you want, even if they’re available in the library. In other apps, you often have to pay extra or obtain a license for such songs. This aspect should be mentioned, even though the music is licensed from the YouTube Audio Library.

The app offers some stickers, GIFs, and effects that can be added to videos. The question is how quickly these will wear out with two billion users and whether they’ll become boring after a few months as people use the same effects over and over. YouTube will likely add more packages to provide more variety. Still, in my opinion, you should rely on your own reference library and possibly commission artists to create custom overlays, GIFs, and other elements. The app is a good introduction for beginners who want to work with video editing for the first time.

I find it a bit imprecise and unfortunately not an alternative for established Creators already working with professional programs. AI is a big topic, not just on YouTube but also outside of it. In the YouTube Shorts camera, they’re now testing something called “DreamScreen,” a feature that allows you to create AI-generated backgrounds. This feature is expected to be available to all Creators by early 2024. The question arises as to whether this is really necessary, and it’s also a bit amusing because it could violate YouTube’s monetization policies. These policies state that automatically generated content that doesn’t add value is against the rules. I’m curious to see if this policy will be revised, but I doubt it. It could mean that channels that overuse this feature might be excluded from the Partner Program.

AI is our topic today, and in this context, I want to mention a startup called “Loud,” which is incubated by Google. It specializes in converting AI transcripts into speech, in a way that doesn’t sound bad. Currently, this only works from English subtitles to Spanish or Portuguese, but several European and Asian languages are in testing phases. A solid integration into YouTube Studio is in the works, but there’s no exact timeline yet. For me, that means we’ll have to wait at least…

Two to three years until it’s market-ready

You know how long YouTube sometimes takes with certain things. I’m curious to see how it turns out. I mentioned it before when we discussed this earlier: Whether it’s an option for me to create my Patreon content in English and then translate it into German. I would definitely try it once just to see how it goes. Once I’ve tried it, I’ll see about the rest.

AI Upgrade in YouTube Analytics

But let’s stay on the topic of AI: There’s an upgrade in YouTube Analytics, in the Research tab. You’ll get the opportunity to explore AI-generated video topics that your audience might be interested in. The AI is supposed to brainstorm for you and suggest video ideas as well as potentially interesting titles. So far, this feature is available in English, South Korean, and Hindi, which are the major markets. If you have viewers from these regions, you’ll be able to see this feature soon. Initially, it will be limited to English content distributed to small groups of 20-24 Creators. After that, it’s supposed to be rolled out to all Creators.

That was a lot for this week. I hope you could take it all in. If you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments! I haven’t forgotten about you, I’m also working on an SEO guide, but I haven’t gotten to it yet. See you next week!

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