Today Americans celebrate the adoption of the Declaration of Independence by the Continental Congress. It’s different this year, fireworks shows are (mostly) cancelled, and people have been encouraged to stay at home. But we can still gather with friends online, and maybe consider what the holiday is about.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
There are updates this week for video creators, website owners, businesses and more.
YouTube and Video Creators
- Google AI has shared details about how SmartReply for YouTube comments was developed. There are a number of unique challenges, compared to SmartReply for Gmail and other products. “YouTube comments reveal complex patterns of language switching, abbreviated words, slang, inconsistent usage of punctuation, and heavy utilization of emoji.”
- Are you wondering how your videos get discovered on YouTube? Creator Insider explains how click through rate (CTR) and average view duration (AVD) come into play.
- YouTube Go is a lightweight version of the YouTube app designed to work in areas where phones have low connectivity or slow connections. Starting this week, the full YouTube app is installed by default on Android (Go Edition) devices, rather than YouTube Go, and YouTube Go was removed from the Google Play Store. Current YouTube Go users will not be affected by this change.
- YouTube is testing a feature that would allow recording multi-segment videos on mobile devices. “If you’re in this experiment, you’ll see an option to ‘create a video’ in the mobile upload flow. Tap or hold the record button to record your first clip, then tap again or release the button to stop recording that clip. Repeat these steps until you’re done capturing footage up to a maximum length of 15 seconds. If you’d like to upload a longer video, you’ll still be able to do so by uploading from your phone gallery instead of recording through the app.“ Inspired by TikTok perhaps?
- Instagram is rolling out its “Reels” feature to more countries - Brazil, Germany and France. Reels lets you shoot 15 second clips set to music or other audio. Reels can be found on creator Profiles and in Explore.
- Facebook is offering more options for monetizing videos. More Pages can offer Fan Subscriptions and fans can gift Stars to more creators. There are also new ad formats for short videos and live streams. Pages are also being invited to use paid online events , to create, promote, and monetize live events on Facebook.Use Creator Studio to see video insights with stats for traffic sources, Live and Stars performance.
- Twitch Partners now have more ways to reward their subscribers, with more emote options and new Badge Flair in chat.
- Live streaming platform StreamYard now lets you have up to 10 participants on screen. (The limit is 6 participants for free accounts).
Websites
- Web.dev live was this week, and you can check out the recorded video presentations on website design, security and more.
- Web Stories for WordPress (by Google) is now available in beta.This allows you to create visually engaging AMP-powered stories that can be shared and embedded on sites.
- The WordPress mobile app now lets you edit and adjust your photos.
- AdSense has added additional third party ad technology vendors. This may result in more ads being eligible to display on your site. You can block these additional ad vendors on the “Ad serving” tab in your AdSense account.
Photos
- Google Photos has turned off automatic backup of images in device folders created by messaging apps like WhatsApp and Messages. If you want these images backed up, you can turn on backup in Google Photos settings.
Communication
- Google Meet is rolling out its AI-powered noise cancellation to G Suite Enterprise, G Suite Enterprise for Education, and G Suite Enterprise Essentials customers. This removes “non-stationary noises, which are noises that vary widely in frequency over a short time.” For example, it will filter out typing, closing a door, background crowd noise or the sounds of a nearby construction site. It does not filter voices, so that you can be heard. But that also means iw won’t filter out background voices.
- Microsoft Team meetings can now have up to 300 participants.
- Discord is updating its branding to be more welcoming to non-gamers, and has increased voice & video capacity by 200 percent. The new tagline: Your place to talk.
- WhatsApp now lets you have up to eight people on a video call, and made it easier to start a group call. Plus there are new animated stickers, add contacts using QR codes and darkmode.
AR Fun
- You can now see dinosaurs in your living room or garden, Search for “dinosaur” (or a specific critter, like T-Rex) in the Google app on your mobile device, then tap “view in 3D”. If your phone is supported, you will see the option to “View in your space”. Once your dino is in place, you can take photos and video to share.
- The ARCore Depth API improves the realism of augmented reality. Try the Lines of Play AR experiment to create domino art creations that interact with the real world to see how it works.
More
- OnEBoard interviewed employer brand expert and Women Techmakers organizer Sofia Lyateva. Watch the video.
- Robert Wallis has a tutorial for adding an image banner to a Twitter list.
- Google Sheets is rolling out new chart axis customization options.
- If you are in the US and sell physical products online, Google is offering free listings in Google Search. Check out the eligibility requirements.
- Google acquired Canadian wearable tech company North. Their focus is human-computer interfaces, including smart glasses with direct retinal projection. Why the acquisition? To help Google’s work on what they call “ambient computing”, “building towards a future where helpfulness is all around you, where all your devices just work together and technology fades into the background.”
Upcoming
- On July 9 Google is hosting a Reddit AMA with 8 members of the Android 11 engineering team answering technical questions.
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