What you need to know
- The Made by YouTube update showed the platform's plan to incorporate Google's DeepMind video generation AI, Veo, into Shorts creation.
- The company detailed plans for "Communities," a place that's all about a channel's creator for fan interactions, fan art, and video discussions.
- YouTube is prepares content organization updates for smart TVs and "Gifts" (digital items) for streamers.
YouTube gives us a detailed look at everything that's coming for the platform, which will affect creators and viewers alike.
The platform held a Made by YouTube event today (Sept 18), highlighting how it will inspire more creators. Set to launch "later this year," YouTube states it's bringing Google's DeepMind AI, Veo, to the short-form video platform. Google explained Veo's "advanced understanding of natural language and visual semantics" as it prepared to arrive for Gemini during I/O 2024.
YouTube creators can lean on the video generation AI tool to help create backgrounds for Shorts and produce "concepts that were once impossible to visualize." Once it arrives, the post states creators can use Veo for six-second clips for your Short.
Additionally, Veo can make a shorter, singular clip to fill in any gaps you may have. Shorts made using Veo will have a "generated with AI" content label attached.
The AI features continue through the "Inspiration" tab in YouTube Studio. Specifically, YouTube is fueling it with Gen AI for title suggestions, thumbnails, outlines, and more. YouTube teases a new shortcut will arrive for the Inspiration tab next year.
Opposite of these AI updates are better interactions between the creator and the viewer with Communities and Community Hub. The former is said to be nestled on a YouTuber's channel and will act as a centralized spot for video discussion, fan art, and connection building. YouTube is already testing Communities with a "handful" of channels, but it plans to extend access to more in "early 2025."
The Community Hub is the next iteration of YouTube Studio's comments tab. This feature will offer "AI-enhanced" assistance as the platform gives creators tailored-made quick responses based on their speaking behavior.
Giving a rising YouTuber some "Hype" is the platform's next support method. Hyping up a video is as simple as clicking a button to raise that creator's points. YouTube states that those with the highest points will be placed on a leaderboard, thus increasing their presence. A limited test has started in Brazil, Turkey, and Taiwan.
More regions should see it "in the coming months."
The next set of interactable are dubbed "Jewels" and "Gifts." YouTube says these are digital items that viewers can send to their favorite YouTube streamers. It reminds us of the same variant TikTok has for streamers. Vertical livestreams on YouTube will receive Gifts first, though the company has not given a timeframe.
The big screen, otherwise known as smart TVs, will receive an update to organized content. The post states creators can place their videos into categories like "seasons" and "episodes." YouTube also detailed that updates will arrive for videos from a channel directly, easier subscription options, and easier links in the description box.
YouTube already rolled out a dual-column UI redesign for smart TVs earlier this year. The changes made it easier for viewers to check out additional video information and not miss any action.
The Made by YouTube updates close by detailing a couple of housecleaning features like "Auto Dubbing." The feature lets creators generate translated tracks for their videos in multiple languages. Initial tests have seemingly gone well as YouTube now plans to extend its coverage to Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, and more.
Lastly, YouTube Shopping is opening its doors to Indonesia today (Sept 18) in partnership with Shopee. "In the coming weeks," the program will extend to Thailand and Vietnam.
