Weekly Update - August 8, 2020: YouTube Music, Blogger, Docs

This week there was both bad news and good news. Google announced the timeline to shut down Google Play Music. I’m sad about it, but I’ve transferred my music to YouTube Music, and I’m going to give that a try. Also YouTube subscription email notifications will be going away. 

On the plus side, the new Blogger interface is being frequently updated, YouTube Live Control Room has new features, and the Google Docs, Sheets & Slides mobile apps have some nice improvements.

Plus there are updates for video creators, webmasters, presenters and more.

Google Play Music

• Google Play Music will be gone by the end of the year. Starting in October, you will no longer be able to stream from the Google Play Music app.You have until December 2020 to transfer your Google Play Music library of uploads and purchases, playlists, and likes to YouTube Music using the transfer tool.
• Uploaded music can be played in YouTube Music offline, ad-free and in the background without a Premium subscription. If you want to download your library, you can do so from the Google Play Music settings or use Google Takeout to create an archive. YouTube Music is making improvements and can play music more places, so if you haven’t tried it recently, you might want to give it another go. Learn more about the transfer process in the YouTube Music help community..

YouTube and Video

• Starting August 13, YouTube will no longer send email notifications of new uploads, live streams and premieres. This will not affect mobile notifications or Chrome notifications on desktop. YouTube has tested this, and did not see any impact on video watch time. In fact, one reason for this change is that less than 0.1% of these emails are opened. Plus it makes it harder to spot important notices from YouTube.
• YouTube’s official blog has a new look and URL (blog.youtube). It will have more news, insights, creator stories and trends.
• YouTube Culture & Trends has a fascinating visual essay, “Watching the Pandemic”. There’s a story, from the quick rise of “sourdough viewership” in the US, to worldwide trends highlighting our need for self-care, social connection, and identity.
• YouTube is rolling out a new access role: Editor (Limited). They can upload and edit videos,and see channel Analytics, but cannot access revenue data. Editors can see all your Analytics data. Note that these roles are only available to channels on Google accounts, but not Brand Accounts.
• There are several improvements to YouTube Live Control Room, including quick access to your previous stream settings, starting and stopping streams on YouTube from your encoder, and simplified stream key management. YouTube is also gradually removing the option to access Classic Streaming.
• Instagram Reels launched this week. Reels lets you record and edit TikTok-like 15-second multi-clip videos.

Bloggers and Webmasters

• Blogger’s legacy interface will only be available until September 1. The Blogger team has been making frequent updates, and is closely listening to user feedback. Some of the updates this week: more labels in the post list, a new “index” search term (add “index:nnn” to a search to list posts from a given position in the list so you don’t have to scroll), and text formatting buttons in the HTML editor.
• If you ever created a Google Sites site on the “classic” Google Sites platform, you should have received an email with the timeline of the transition to new Google Sites. The new Classic Sites Manager, helps you manage the transition, or delete old unwanted Sites. Starting in October 2021 you will no longer be able to edit your Classic Sites, and they will no longer be publicly viewable in December 2021 (yes, that gives you over a year).
• How does Google Search test their algorithm changes? Google explains how they use raters from around the world to improve search results.

Productivity

• The Google Docs, Sheets and Slides mobile apps are getting a makeover, with dark mode, easy edit of Microsoft Office files, improved comments interface, and the ability to respond to comments from the Gmail mobile app.
• The Google Docs mobile app is making it easier to write and edit your content with link previews and Smart Compose.
• There is a new viewing interface in the Google Slides Android app, which lets you scroll through a stream of your slides, pinch to zoom, and easily switch to editing, presenting, or casting content.
• If you have a shared Google Slides presentation, it will not check to make sure everyone has permission to view embedded video and audio.
• Files by Google now lets you set up a PIN-protected Safe Folder. That way if you let your kids (or anyone else) use your phone, they can’t access your files.

Communication

• How did Google Meet video calling adapt to a 30-fold increase in demand due to huge numbers of workers, students, and others staying-at-home? Get a look behind the scenes.
• Zoom has added new filters, emoji reactions, and noise cancellation. 

More

• Facebook has a new program to support Black Creators in the US, to provide funding and resources. If you are eligible (10k followers on Instagram or Facebook), follow the link to apply.
• If you stream audio content, like Podcasts, Google Ad Manager now supports audio ads. It’s also easier for advertisers to create audio ads.
• If you have a paid Feedly account, you can now use it follow Twitter accounts, hashtags, lists, and searches.
• Google has new toys that let you play with art and music. Check out the Creative Summer with Google Arts & Culture collection.

That’s all the updates for this week. Subscribe to get the Weekly Update in your email inbox or favorite feed reader every week. Miss last week’s update? Get it here.

Image: Photo of vintage vinyl record album by Elviss Railijs Bitāns from Pexels. Free for commercial use.