Weekly Update - June 12, 2021: YouTube, Meet, Google Photos

This week California businesses will have most COVID-19 distancing and capacity restrictions lifted. Is this a good idea? Locally almost 80% of 12-and-ups have had at least one vaccine dose, so that seems like it should be safe. But I don’t see businesses really getting back to pre-COVID “normal” for a while yet.

This week’s highlights:

• YouTube announced improvements in copyright takedowns to prevent reuploads, expansion of the Shorts video editor across the Americas and in the UK, and the ability to to add cards, captions and midrolls while your uploaded video is processing.
• The Google Photos Locked Folder feature that lets you hide certain images is rolling out.
• Google Meet now lets you replace your background on (selected) Android devices, and will be rolling out video backgrounds on the web.
• And this week was the Apple WWDC with a few interesting updates, including FaceTime on the web with a demo of it working on an Android phone.

Read on for all the details and more tips and tutorials.

Upcoming

• The Google Search Central online “Unconference” is June 21. Applications are open until June 14th. What makes it an “unconference” is that attendees actively participate in the event rather than watching talks or panels.

YouTube

• YouTube Partners can now add any link that complies with YouTube policy to Link Cards and End Screens. Note that linking to sites that do not comply with YouTube’s Community Guidelines and Terms of Use can result in “card or link removal, strikes, or termination of your Google Account.” (See all the recent Creator Updates)
• YouTube is improving copyright takedowns by allowing creators to prevent the video from being reuploaded. YouTube will also be expanding access to the Copyright Match Tool to any creator that submits a valid copyright takedown request.
• The YouTube Shorts video editor has expanded to 24 more countries including the UK, Canada and Central and South America, in addition to India and the US. See the full list of countries. If you do not have access to the Shorts video editor, you can still upload a Shorts video: vertical, under 60 seconds, with the hashtag #Shorts. I have been playing with the “Shorts” format and made this video of Spring Landscapes using photos from the OnEBoard group Creative project Spring 2021.
• You can now add endscreens, cards, manual captions, and insert midroll ads while your newly uploaded YouTube video is still processing.

Meetings and Communication

• More backgrounds in Google Meet: you can now replace your background when you are using an eligible Android device (Samsung Galaxy S9 or later, Pixel 3 or later, or similar). Meet is also starting to roll out the option to replace your background with video on desktop. This is limited to pre-set videos and requires Chrome version M87 or higher.
• This week was Apple WWDC, and among the announcements were a number of new features for FaceTime. There are audio and video improvements to make the calls seem more “natural”. SharePlay is a new feature that lets people in a FaceTime call share music, video or collaborating in apps. And notably, they have enabled a new web interface, which lets FaceTime work in a browser, including the mobile version of Chrome. And yes, that means FaceTime can be accessed on Android devices.

Photos and Mobile Camera

• The latest Pixel phone feature drop includes two new photos features. Create a timelapse of the night sky when you use the Night Sight Astrophotography feature on your Pixel phone. This is available on the Pixel 4 and later.
• The Google Photos Locked Folder, announced at Google I/O, is now rolling out. Photos saved to the Locked Folder are only saved on your device, won’t show up in Memories or other apps, and can only be accessed using your device passcode or fingerprint. This is available on the Pixel 3 and later.
• Apple now offers better controls over which people and places appear in Memories in the Photos app.
• Google Lens has a new Places filter. That uses 3D models from Google Earth together with the Lens image recognition technology to identify buildings and landmarks by pointing your camera at them.
• Apple’s new “Live Text” feature in Photos digitizes text, so that you can copy and paste, call a phone number, and so forth. (Android users should try Google Lens, which has those features. It can be accessed from inside Google Photos on your phone.)

Social Media

• Instagram will be testing a new Affiliate program, where people can shop directly from Instagram posts and the creators get a cut. Facebook is also making it easier to set up their own shop from their Instagram profile.
• Facebook is launching Stars Challenges, where Facebook Live Creators can earn a payout by meeting milestones, like broadcasting a certain number of hours. There is a similar program with badges in Instagram Live.
• Instagram CEO Adam Mossari explains what signals they use to rank your Feed, Stories, Explore and Reels.
• Kait Sanchez at The Verge notes that Clubhouse and other social audio platforms “have an accessibility program”. Live captions, the interface and other features seem to be an afterthought. Sanchez looks at accessibility on Clubhouse, Twitter Spaces, Discord Stage Channels, Reddit Talk, Facebook Live Audio Rooms and Slack Audio Meetings.

More

• Google is making changes in Search to help people dealing with harassment via sites that post slanderous content and charge a fee for removal. They allow people to request content in search to be removed, demote those sites in the search results, and now, when someone requests a removal from a site with predatory practices, they will automatically change the site ranking to prevent content from “other similar low quality sites” appearing in the search results for that person’s name. Jon Porter at The Verge has more context about this update.
• Google My Business short names and URLs have been deprecated. Ben Fisher explains that existing short names will continue to work, but short names cannot be edited and you cannot add a new short name to your business’s Google My Business profile.

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: It’s finally the beach time of year. Beach photo by heidi_ziller on Pixabay (free for commercial use, no attribution required)