Made on YouTube: Community, Hype Leaderboards, Jewels & Gifts, Automatic Dubbing, AI Shorts Tools

At today's Made on YouTube event, YouTube announced a whole slew of new creator features. 

Here's what is coming: 

• Communities, a space on your channel where fans can post and chat
• Community Hub in the YouTube Studio app to engage with fans
• Hype Leaderboards to let fans help promote your videos
• Gifts powered by Jewels, gifts sent by fans during vertical livestreams
• YouTube Shopping in more countries
• Organize your content into seasons and episodes
• AI-powered automatic dubbing into multiple languages
• Updated Inspiration tab with AI-generated video outlines, thumbnails and titles
• Effects Maker tool for creating YouTube Shorts effects
• GenAI Puppeteering to turn you into your "alter ego"
• AI-generated video clips and backgrounds with Veo in the YouTube Shorts editor

Some of these will start rolling out over the next few months, but some are still being tested, and will not be available until 2025.

Announcement: 

• YouTube blog: A future full of opportunities, Made on YouTube
• YouTube Help Community: New updates to help creators build community, drive business, & express creativity on YouTube

Read on for more details.

YouTube Communities

Of all today's announcements, the one I'm most excited about is Communities. This will give channel owners and fans a place to interact and, well, build community.

Today the YouTube Community tab only has Posts created by the channel. While Posts can be engaging with polls, quizzes and behind-the-scenes content, it's not a true community space. But that is going to change. 

Prior to the current Community tab, channels had a Discussion tab, where visitors could post comments for the channel. That was phased out in 2021. The Community tab initially was limited to channels with at least 1,000 subscribers, and expanded to all channels in October 2022. 

Many channels have fan communities on Reddit or Discord or Facebook, but I think it makes sense for there to be a place for fans to gather on YouTube itself.

How do the new Communities work?

• Fans can post (with images) and comment on others' posts. This will initially be limited to subscribers, with channel owners controlling who can post. 
• Communities are currently only available in the YouTube mobile App

How do you get access? 

Communities are now being tested with a small number of channels. It should be expanding to more channels in early 2025. 

You can view and join communities on Bake with Shivesh (baking), Mogswamp (gaming),  Sydney Cummings Houdyshell (fitness).

Announcement: A new YouTube Communities Experience, By Fans, For Fans

YouTube Studio Community Hub

In the YouTube Studio mobile app, the Comments tab is being updated to Community Hub.

It will not only let you respond to comments with "AI-enhanced" reply suggestions that are "tailored to your style".  It will also have a community spotlight and audience metrics. 

My guess is that this redesign is meant to make it easier to interact with the new Community fan posts as well. 

How does the Community Hub work? 

• You will see editable, AI-powered reply suggestions, based on your style and tone.
• Community Spotlight is a carousel highlighting your "key commenters".
• Audience metrics show the number of comments and returning viewers.

How do you get access?

YouTube says "These features will gradually roll out over time." 

Hype 

If you really really like a video, the new Hype option can help give it a boost. It's aimed at promoting "emerging" creators with fewer than 500,000 subscribers.

How does Hype work? 

• You can Hype a video that is was posted less than 7 days ago on a channel with less than 500,000 subscribers. 
• You can hype up to 3 times per week. 
• There is a "small creator bonus" to channels with fewer subscribers. 
• The most-hyped videos will be highlighted on a country-specific leaderboard.
• Top hyped videos get a special badge.
• This will NOT influence your recommendations and search results the way Likes do.

How do you get access?

This is currently being tested in Brazil, Taiwan and Turkey. This will eventually expand to more countries, but YouTube has not shared the time frame for that.

I do wonder how YouTube will prevent this from being gamed by the same people who buy views, subscribers, and likes.

Announcement: Giving fans a stake in the success of their favorite emerging creators

Gifts powered by Jewels

Gifts are a new way for fans to support their favorite creators.

Currently fans can give their favorite channels a tip using Super Chat and Super Stickers in live stream chat and Super Thanks on long form videos and Shorts.

How do Gifts work?

YouTube says: 

Jewels are digital goods that will unlock new ways for you to earn from viewer participation on YouTube. Viewers can purchase Jewels to send gifts to show their support and appreciation for you and your channel

So you use actual money to purchase Jewels. You then use the Jewels to send Gifts.

How do you get access?

Jewels and Gifts will first launch on vertical live streams in the United States. 

Expanded YouTube Shopping

The YouTube Shopping affiliate program is expanding to more countries. 

How do you get access?

The YouTube Shopping affiliate program is currently available to: 

• Channels in the YouTube Partner Program
• At least 10,000 subscribers
• Not Made for Kids 
• Not a music channel

This is currently available in the United States, South Korea, and, as of today, Indonesia. It will soon expand to Thailand and Vietnam.

Organize your content into seasons and episodes

To make content easier to consume on the TV screen, you will soon be able to organize content into TV show-like "Seasons" and "Episodes".

There will be additional features that make watching YouTube on TV a better experience. 

•  Immersive content
• Streamlined subscription options
• Easier access to links in descriptions

How do you get access? 

YouTube has not shared when this will be available. 

Automatic dubbing into multiple languages

In 2023 YouTube announced that the experimental AI-powered Aloud dubbing tool would be brought in-house and expanded. 

A small set of creators have been testing this, and will soon be available to more creators in more languages. 

How does it work? 

• The tool generates translated audio tracks for your videos, which viewers can select as alternate audio tracks. 
• It can translate from English into Spanish and Portuguese (and vice versa), with French, Italian and "more" language options being added.
• You can choose languages to be automatically dubbed when you upload (including none).
• They are testing new features to make the sound more natural "that will transfer your tone and intonation, the ambiance of your surroundings".

How do you get access? 

This will be available to "hundreds of thousands more" creators "in the coming months". 

Updated Inspiration Tab 

A few months ago, YouTube added a new Inspiration tab in YouTube Studio with an AI-powered tool to brainstorm ideas and create a simple outline, based on your channel's content and your viewers' interests. It's getting an update with new features that will essentially map out an entire video for you.

How does it work?

You will be able to use the Inspiration tool to not just brainstorm video ideas, but also generate a detailed outline, titles and thumbnails. And it will even generate hooks (the first few sentences in the video, to "hook" the viewer). 

The suggestions are customized for your channel, and you will eventually be able to launch a brainstorming session from a fan's comment or your own videos.

How do you get access?

You can access it from the Inspiration tab in YouTube Studio.

Most of the Inspiration updates will roll out in YouTube Studio towards the end of the year. AI-generated hooks and brainstorming from anywhere in YouTube Studio will be available in 2025.

Effect Maker for YouTube Shorts

Effect Maker is a new web-based tool that lets anyone create YouTube Shorts effects.

There should be more details about how it works when it starts rolling out. 

How do you get access? 

Effect Maker should start rolling out "in the coming months" (which I expect means before the end of the year). 

GenAI Puppeteering in YouTube Shorts

GenAI Puppeteering uses generative AI to "turn creators into alter egos like superheroes or claymation figures that move with you." The way I imagine it is your face or head put on an AI-generated body.

There should be more details about how it works when it becomes available. 

How do you get access? 

This will become available in early 2025. 

AI-generated video clips and backgrounds in Shorts

Veo is Google DeepMind's latest text-to-video model, that can generate realistic-looking high definition video. It will be integrated in the YouTube Shorts editor to create backgrounds and video clips.

How does it work?

These experimental generative AI tools will be available in the YouTube Shorts editor in the YouTube mobile app.

• Dream Screen, which creates AI-generated backgrounds, will now be powered by Veo. You can access that in the YouTube Shorts editor by tapping the Green Screen icon.
• You will also be able to use Veo to generate 6 second video clips to add to your Short.
• The created videos will have a SynthID watermark and an "Altered or synthetic content" label

How do you get access? 

Dream Screen will be updated in the next few months, and AI-powered video clips will be available in early 2025.

 Note that the AI features are not available in all locations. YouTube hasn't specified where they are available, but I (in the US) have Dream Screen in the Shorts editor.

If you want to try Veo outside of the YouTube Shorts editor, join the waitlist for VideoFX in Google's AI Test Kitchen.