Weekly Update - December 19, 2020: YouTube, Meet, Photos

It's the last Weekly Update for 2020! Not surprisingly, much of the news this week is about communication. Google Meet is rolling out live captions in more languages; unlimited Zoom calls will be available for Christmas and New Years; and Duo has holiday AR filters. 

Google Photos has new automatic creations, including Cinematic Photos, and new themes for collages. And if you have your location history turned on, you can see a map of your daily travels along with your photos.

If your YouTube channel has at least 1000 subscribers you can now manage your Community posts in YouTube Studio, and now most channels in the YouTube Partner Program can offer Memberships.

And Twitter announced is shutting down Periscope, the last of the live streaming apps that made a big splash in 2015.

Finally, there won’t be a post on December 26 as I will be celebrating the Christmas and New Year’s holidays and working on my year-in-review post.

Thank you for being loyal readers, and on to 2021! 

More best of 2020

• Google Designs Best of 2020
• Google Search Central looks at a weird year in review.
• Flickr lists their best photos of 2020 and the past decade. Plus they highlight their top 20 groups and review all their updates of 2020.
• Instagram Year in Review: Memes were the mood
• Mozilla reviews the year for Firefox.
• Nature has 10 people who helped shape science in 2020 and the best science images.
• Science Magazine’s Breakthrough of the Year.

YouTube and Video

• If your YouTube channel is eligible for Community posts, you can now find them in YouTube Studio on the new Content tab (formerly the Videos tab). Anyone with edit permissions in YouTube Studio can now edit posts. You still need to create posts outside of Studio. Channels with at least 1000 subscribers are eligible.
• Channel Memberships are now available to all creators with at least 1000 subscribers in 80 countries around the world. Your channel must also be in the YouTube Partner Program and not “Made For Kids”.
• Turn your business’s Google My Business listing into a promo video, with the new Video Maker. You can pick a style and music, and Google will create a video with the best photos, reviews and information. You can download the video to share on social media or YouTube.
• Did you know these three myths about YouTube Trending (from Creator Insider)?
• Twitter is shutting down Periscope in March 2021. It’s “core capabilities'' have already been incorporated into Twitter. You will be able to download your data and saved broadcasts. There is a FAQ to learn more.
• Reddit has acquired “short-form video social platform” Dubsmash. Its video creation tools will be integrated into Reddit, and it brings a diverse user base (25% of all Black US teens are on Dubsmash!).
• Facebook Gaming is offering new monetization options for gaming live streams. In live chat comments attached to “Stars” are highlighted and can be pinned, making them more visible. There is also an update to virtual gifts.
• Instagram Reels has new “audio mix” and “voice over” options, plus improved editing tools.
• TikTok is banning content related to multi-level marketing (MLM), pyramid schemes and “get rich quick” content.

Social Media

• Twitter announced their new verification policy.They will be reopening applications in 2021.
• Twitter is testing audio-only “Spaces”.

Photos

• Google Photos offers new creations. Cinematic Photos uses machine learning to create a smooth panning effect. There are new collage designs. And story-like Memories will start being created based on photos of things (like sunsets) and activities (like hiking or baking).
• You can now “see your path through the world” in Google Photos, with your maps timeline. If you open Search, then “Your Map” you should see the option to hide your timeline. You need location history enabled on your Android or iOS device to see this feature. Learn more.
• If you have a low-end Android phone, you can now take HDR photos with the Google Camera Go app.
• Flickr is introducing an auto-moderation bot to review new uploads for explicit content. Such content is usually restricted.

Webmasters

• Microsoft Clarity is now integrated with Bing Webmaster Tools. Clarity is a free web analytics product.

Video Conferencing

• Google Meet is getting live captions in French, German, Portuguese (Brazil) and Spanish (Spain and Latin America), in addition to the current English captions. These are currently rolling out on desktop in APAC (Asia Pacific) and EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa). In early 2021 they will be available in North America and South America, and on mobile devices.
• Google has tips for hosting a holiday group video call using Meet or Zoom. If you have a free Google account, your video calls can go on for up to 24 hours (available through March 2021).
• If you have a Nest Hub Max,Meet video calling has gotten a number of improvements: 2x2 grid view (with the option to view other participants); pin specific participants; names on video tiles; and an in-meeting clock.
• Duo has new holiday AR effects, so you can make yourself look like a Christmas tree or perky reindeer.
• Zoom is offering unlimited meetings to free accounts December 17-19, December 23-26 and December 30-January 2.
• Microsoft Teams has a reminder of the features available with free accounts: scheduled meetings, “together mode” shared background in video calls, guest access, cloud storage, and whiteboard in Teams
• Microsoft Teams calls now have AI-based noise suppression, to filter out noise without affecting speech.
• Skype now has “Together Mode”, just like Teams. It lets participants see each other as if they are in a physically shared space, and there are different scenes like an auditorium and coffee shop.
• Signal has launched group video calls that are “free, private, and end-to-end encrypted”.

Messaging

• Facebook Messenger has holiday AR effects on desktop.
• Facebook Messenger Kids has messages from Santa, holiday AR effects, and digital holiday cards

More

• YouTube is hosting a New Year’s Eve party: “Celebrate the most anticipated New Year in modern history with YouTube’s Hello 2021; a virtual celebration featuring J Balvin, Dua Lipa, YG, Karol G, Emma Chamberlain, Dude Perfect, Demi Lovato, hosts Juanpa Zurita and Storm Reid and more.” It begins at 7:30 PM Pacific Time.
• If you are shopping for makeup you can try on products using the Google app’s AR technology.
• Just for fun: create a festive song with the machine learning-trained Blob Opera. Or let them sing a Christmas carol.

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 trees decorated with lights by Jonathan Meyer from Pexels