YouTube's New Features: Q&A Stickers, Larger Thumbnails, and More!

Transcript

A quick recommendation before we dive into this week’s YouTube updates: We had a Creator Q&A livestream here on the channel with some exciting insights into 2025 and what YouTube has in store. Be sure to check out the info card or end card at the end of the video for a link.

Voice Messages

We’ve already seen them on iOS, but don’t worry: an experiment will also be conducted on Android in the first quarter of 2025 (Q1), although initially only for English-language videos. It’s still unclear whether and when the feature will be available for desktop users.

Q&A Stickers for Mobile Livestreams and Shorts

There’s not much to say about this. It’s a useful feature to encourage engagement in the chat or comments. The key distinction is that the creator asks the question, and the chat/viewers respond. This differs from the classic Q&A feature during horizontal streaming, where viewers ask questions and the creator answers. The feature is now fully launched, and I’ve already seen it on my phone.

Improvements to the YouTube Studio Dashboard

On this topic, there’s currently a survey by “Creator Zeider” that you can find in the video description. If you want YouTube Studio to improve, participate and share your thoughts!

Larger Thumbnails

As mentioned, the file sizes for thumbnails will be increased—up to 10 MB. This is already the case for podcasts, and according to the plan, videos will also receive this update in February 2025, allowing you to upload larger thumbnails.

YouTube Courses

Lastly, a brief update on YouTube Courses: These are a special type of playlist where a quiz appears at the end, tracking how far you’ve progressed through the course. A very interesting concept! Free courses are set to be introduced in March, while paid courses (a premium product) will have regional restrictions. They will only be available in Canada, the USA, India, Japan, and some Central American countries, not in the EU—likely due to regulations. We’ll definitely keep an eye on this and might even offer some courses on our channel. If you have suggestions for course content, feel free to leave a comment!

Thank you for tuning in! I hope you took away something useful from this week’s YouTube updates. Stay healthy and motivated until next week!