YouTube Updates: New Features for Creators and Viewers

Transcript

The YouTube updates this week: Thumbnails are now editable. That means you simply go to your YouTube app or YouTube Studio app, select a video, and then you can choose a frame, add text, and set it as the thumbnail. I think this is a good thing. Let me know in the comments if you’d like to see additional features.

Staying on the topic of thumbnails, there are now so-called “lively thumbnails.” This is an experiment for the viewer side. As a creator, you won’t have much to do with it, but you should be aware of what it is: Similar to the regular feed, where videos might start playing when you hover over them or scroll past, “lively thumbnails” will now also be generated for live streams. That means it’s no longer necessary to have a specific thumbnail; instead, whatever is currently happening in the stream will practically rotate through. It’s a small experiment that will run until the end of 2024 and will be rolled out across all services—whether on TV, mobile app, or desktop. It starts on the desktop version, so if you use YouTube on your computer, you’ll soon be able to see these thumbnails for live streams. I personally think it’s a very cool feature.

Next up is Brand Connect. We briefly touched on this before, where I showed how to access the media kit. In fact, YouTube has started allow-listing for an expansion into Germany. That means you can already apply for Brand Connect and will likely be accepted. The problem is, there are no deals available yet. So, you can benefit from the media kit but can’t do much with it besides what you could already do: create your media kit and manually forward it to companies that don’t have a deal with YouTube. In principle, it’s a good thing; as mentioned before, you need 20,000 subscribers to participate in Brand Connect, and if you reach this milestone by the end of the year, you should have access.

Corp-streaming is getting some new mobile features in Q4 2024. I can’t yet reveal what exactly, but I know there will be updates. Hopefully, it’s a cool feature.

A small thing for those in the YouTube Partner Program: The so-called ad-blocking settings were previously in YouTube AdSense. You had to log in separately to AdSense and then could specify which URLs or advertisers you didn’t want to work with. For example, if you didn’t want to collaborate with certain parties or if you said that Nestlé might not be the optimal company to appear before your videos—for personal reasons or conviction—you could enter that there. The first part of the rollout will take place next week, and then you’ll be able to set this not only in AdSense but also in your YouTube Studio without having to log in separately. In principle, that’s a good thing.

Super Chat Goals are already being rolled out, with the deadline extended until the end of November. There was some news on this in a small update. The live rings, the red ring when you’re live, will now be displayed in all feeds—including the desktop home feed. Previously, they were only visible in the subscriber bar on the side. Some attentive viewers noticed this, and I had it confirmed by YouTube: Yes, indeed, the live rings were rolled out in September.

That’s a lot to take in again. If you have any further questions, feel free to leave them in the comments. Otherwise, see you next week. Until then, take care!