Google"s YouTube division continues to be the biggest video streaming service in the world, thanks to its ever-increasing number of creators who make content for the service. Today, Google announced a bunch of new features designed to help both creators and their fans expand their reach.
In a blog post, Google goes over the list of new features that were revealed as part of the Made on YouTube event. Perhaps the most interesting new addition is Communities. It will add more ways for creators and their fans to connect with each other beyond the traditional comments section.
Google offers more information on the YouTube Communities feature in a separate blog post:
- Fan-initiated: Conversations and comments can be initiated and shared by fans, with creator control over who can participate. To start, only subscribers can post in Communities, and we’re evaluating more controls that could be helpful to creators as we continue our tests.
- Dedicated space: A dedicated spot for conversation and connection, empowering creators to maintain control over their content and brand while fostering meaningful community engagement in a comfortable and inviting space.
- Continuous dialog: Conversations transcend individual videos and posts, allowing topics to flow organically and continue over time.
- Community-powered: Fans drive the space, creating a sense of belonging where like-minded individuals can connect, learn, and share their passions.
Google is currently testing YouTube Communities with a small number of content creators on mobile devices. It will expand to more channels sometime in 2025.
Other new and upcoming YouTube creator and fan features that were revealed today include:
Hype - This will be a new way for fans to get a video noticed by others beyond the usual "Like" button. After liking a video, users can click the "Hype This Video" option to put it on a Hype leaderboard that will rank the Hypes with other videos.
Dream Screen improvements for YouTube Shorts - Creators can already make custom background for YouTube Shorts via Dream Screen. Soon they will be able to not only make more realistinc background but also video clips for Shorts in Dream Screen. This is due to the addition of Veo, the AI video creator from Google"s DeepMind divisison.
Channels can be organized into seasons and episodes - With so much YouTube content being watched on big-screen TVs, creators will soon be able to organize their videos into seasons and episodes to make them easier to watch on those bigger screens.