YouTube's UI Update: Confusion and Changes for Users and Creators

Transcript

We need to talk about the elephant in the room because YouTube has revived an experiment from 2022: they’re swapping the positions of the title description and comments, which usually appear below the video, with the recommended videos on the right-hand side. I’ve already made a YouTube video about this before. It’s not inherently bad, but some people are complaining that it can’t be reversed. To be fair, yes, that’s correct; it can’t be reversed because it’s a design test by YouTube. YouTube just wants to expose a certain group of people to this new design. Of course, many people will initially say, “This is difficult,” and then later say, “Oh, it’s not that bad.” And we won’t care either way. Let’s see what the feedback is on this. Importantly, this change has also been implemented in some live streams. I’d prefer it if it works well and presents us reasonably. Unfortunately, there are some issues with loading important UI elements. UI elements include the title, the “About” button, or the “Join” button for members. By the way, you can also become a member of this channel to support formats like this one. These elements load but then disappear immediately. We’ve already submitted a bug report to YouTube and are expecting feedback as early as next week.

While we’re on the topic of live streams, let’s move on to Vertical Live. We received some questions from you about this in recent weeks that we were able to answer. For example, there are questions about the YPP requirements (YouTube Partner Program requirements). Vertical Live Streams meet these requirements. That means if your stream archive remains public and the stream is properly processed, i.e., shorter than 8 hours, then the playback hours accumulated during the live stream as well as those from the stream archive will count toward your YouTube Partner Program requirements. The user history for moderators will also soon be available on mobile devices, which is very important when we have mobile live streams or streams designed primarily for mobile devices.

There are currently no free memberships in the Vertical Live program. This is actually correct and intentional. However, it will be reintroduced later when other aspects of this product work better. Currently, there are no ads in the Shorts Vertical Stream, specifically in the Shorts live stream, as these are two separate feeds. You can access a live stream from the Shorts feed by clicking “Watch Now” or pausing a Short and pressing “Live” at the top. There are currently no ads in this feed. This means that with your Vertical Streams, you’re currently only reaching an audience but not making any monetary gains. If you’re already in the Partner Program, your earnings from Shorts depend on the number of Shorts views, and Vertical Live Stream views don’t count toward these Shorts views that determine how much money you receive from the total Shorts revenue. If you’d like a detailed explanation, I made a video about this last year that I’ll either link in the description or include as an info card.

The next point is “Shorts Live Feed Eligibility,” which is essentially the ability for Vertical Streams to appear in the Shorts Live Feed. This is actually a rephrasing by YouTube’s legal team to avoid content like minors going live and possibly doing nonsensical things, or extremists and the like, appearing in the live feed. Anything we don’t want in the live feed, YouTube reserves the right to censor. Of course, this will upset some people, but it’s not censorship; it’s a sensible measure. Multistreamers need to be especially careful now. These are people who stream on multiple platforms simultaneously. YouTube is currently considering modifying its spam policies to make it unacceptable to write in titles, thumbnails, or chat that you won’t interact on YouTube and want to direct viewers to another platform.

Tips for Using YouTube

This is more or less already included in the guidelines from time to time, but it’s being made more explicit: Please interact with your community on YouTube and create your content properly and decently. If you only want to use the platform to generate reach and redirect it to another platform, you can expect the corresponding consequences.

Yesterday, we had a small Q&A stream with a YouTube employee from YouTube Studio and the YouTube Analytics team. If you have any further questions, feel free to ask them in the comments; I’ll forward them. You can also join the YouTube Discords gg/YouTube and gg/youtub Gaming, where you’ll be well taken care of.

Until next week’s patch roundup! Take care and keep coding! [Music]