Creator Weekly: Sora AI Social Media, AdSense Traffic Sources, YouTube BrandConnect Open Call

Lots of updates this week, for YouTube, for Meta Threads and Facebook, Twitch, and more. Plus a new social AI video sharing app from OpenAI that’s all about deepfakes of yourself and friends.

Note that next week there will not be a newsletter or live stream because I will be attending the Google Product Expert Summit in Dublin, Ireland. I’ll share more about it when I get back!

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🗓 Ten Years Ago This Week: Pushing HTTPS Everywhere

To celebrate 10 years of Creator Weekly, I’m sharing highlights from 2015.

Ten years ago there was a concerted push to get all websites on the web to adopt HTTPS. This allows a secure encrypted connection between your browser and a website’s server.

It didn’t happen quickly, but eventually HTTPS really was (and is) everywhere. Read all about it.

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✅ Take this week’s quiz

What do you know about YouTube’s new Hide End Screen option? Take this week’s quiz.
New Tips and Tutorials

Learn how to use YouTube’s new collaboration feature. Watch the video.

To Do and Try

There are new generative AI tools in YouTube Effect Maker, the platform for creating effects for YouTube Shorts. This allows creation of “interactive and personalized effects”. Current templates are AI transformation, AI randomizer, AI head gesture quiz, and Drawing. Go to effects.youtube.com/home to give it a try.

Deepfake friends (and yourself) in the Sora AI Video App

OpenAI released the Sora 2 video generation model, along with a social app. Sora 2 can generate video, along with audio, similar to Google’s Veo 3.

“The model is also a big leap forward in controllability, able to follow intricate instructions spanning multiple shots while accurately persisting world state. It excels at realistic, cinematic, and anime styles.” It also does a much better job at following the laws of physics than the original Sora model.

But it’s not just a new AI model. OpenAI also released the Sora app for iOS.

The new app lets you create and remix videos, view an algorithmic feed of creations, and most notably, generate videos of yourself or friends using the “Cameo” feature.

You make a short video and audio recording of yourself to “verify your identity and capture your likeness”. It then can be used by yourself or “friends” in the app to generate new videos.

For example, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has been featured in weird and “terrifying” deepfake videos using the Cameo feature.

You can choose who is allowed to use your likeness, and remove videos with your likeness at any time.

OpenAI also says the feed is “heavily biased towards people you follow or interact with, and prioritize videos that the model thinks you’re most likely to use as inspiration for your own creations.”

The secret sauce is that the app is meant to be something you use with friends.

To get access:

Install the Sora iOS app and join the waiting list (current users can also send an invite)
Only available in the US and Canada, but will be expanding to additional countries
Currently free “with generous limits”, which I take to mean it will likely require a subscription in the future.

If nothing else, it’s a hot topic of discussion. Some takes:

Jason Koebler @ 404 Media: OpenAI’s Sora 2 Copyright Infringement Machine Features Nazi SpongeBobs and Criminal Pikachus
Alex Mahadevan @ Poynter: My journey into the artificial world of Sora 2
Mike Isaac & Eli Tan @ New York Times: OpenAI’s Sora Video App Is Jaw-Dropping (for Better and Worse)

Extend with AI in YouTube Shorts

There is a new YouTube Shorts Remix option: Extend with AI.

Find the Short you want to remix
Select Remix > Extend with AI
Pick a 5 second segment
Select an AI prompt to extend it
You can then add more video and music

More details:

The remix links back to the original
Creators can opt content out of Remixes
This is gradually rolling out, outside the UK and EU

YouTube BrandConnect Open Call

YouTube shared details about BrandConnect Open Call, a new pilot program to connect channels looking to break into sponsorships with Brands.

A brand creates an open call. If your channel matches the criteria you will see it on the Earn tab in the YouTube Studio mobile app. You can submit content for consideration.
Open Calls are for Shorts only.
Once you submit a video, it’s final, and the Brand cannot request edits
You can earn varying amounts up to $3500. Payments are sent to your AdSense within 60 days.
Brands can use selected content up to 180 days. They can reach out to the creator to negotiate new terms after that.
This is open to U.S. Creators in the YouTube Partner Program.
Open Call begins this fall and will run through December.

Facebook Fan Challenges and Badges

Facebook added new fan features:

Fan challenges from Creators. A fan leaderboard lists challenges with the most reactions.
Custom top fan badges. They display when you comment on a Creator’s Page and on your own profile.

Threads Communities

Threads launched Communities. These are less separate communities and more topics on steroids. This is currently being tested with the 100 most popular topics, from NBA to YouTube Creators to KPop.

Membership is public and tagged on your profile
The Communities you join will be pinned in your Feeds menu
Each Community has a custom “Like” emoji (NBA Community has a basketball)
A topic with a Community shows a 3 dot icon. Click to open and join.
Soon there will be “special badges” for “standout community contributors”.

Understand your AdSense Traffic Sources

AdSense for Content has a new traffic source breakdown report, showing traffic from popular search engines, social media sites, and websites.

Sources include Bing, Facebook, FMKorea, Google, Instagram, Naver, TheQoo, X (Twitter), Yahoo, and YouTube. Traffic from other sources is listed as Direct, Other, and Unknown.

On my site the top sources are Google, Direct, Other and Bing, which is unsurprising.

Traffic Source stats are available for reports starting July 21, 2025.

Video Creator and Live Streaming Updates

YouTube reorganized and renamed Channel Moderation Settings. On desktop the Community tab is now the Community Moderation tab, with tabs for content controls, User management and channel guidelines.

If you promote videos and run ads on YouTube, there are new Google Ads metrics: “Views” are now “TrueView views”. There are also “public views”, that are “counted when users watch the video ad for a similar amount of time as an organic view.” Advertisers do not have to pay for public views. Google says this will not affect billing for advertisers or creators.

Fans can give digital Gifts to vertical live streamers on YouTube. US Creators can now set Gift goals. Once a goal is reached, the streamer can set a new goal. (This was previously an experiment). Plus there are new Autumn stickers.

YouTube is updating its Medical Misinformation policy to enforce against content that “falsely claims tobacco or nicotine are not addictive or harmful”. Enforcement begins on October 20th.

YouTube is piloting two improvements to auto-dubbing: expressive speech that emulates pitch and intonation, and lip-sync, where the lips are animated to match the dubbing. This is available to a small set of creators.

If you have a YouTube Premium subscription, there are new features included, with expanded access to “jump ahead”, faster playback speeds, high quality audio, smart Shorts downloads and Shorts picture-in-picture. Learn more.

YouTube shared a new video explaining how to recover a hacked YouTube channel (and Google Account): Your first step should be the hacked channel assistant, that will walk you through recovery steps (Available in English, Spanish, Portuguese). If recovery of your YouTube channel/Google account is unsuccessful, you can either try Creator Support (if you have access) or mention @TeamYouTube on X/Twitter. And note that as long as you have a YouTube channel you can use YouTube's hacked account support if your Google Account is hijacked.

Twitch has a new Social Media badge that you can earn by sharing Clips from participating channels on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. Badge levels are based on how many views your content receives. You must be a subscriber or have been following the participating channel with viewer exports enabled for at least 3 months. Twitch says this is available for a “limited time”.

TwitchCon turns 10 this year. The annual convention may be missing prominent streamers this year due to concerns around harassment and violent stalking (last year two Twitch streamers were sexually assaulted, with no repercussions, and a number of female streamers have had break-ins and death threats).

Tubefilter reports: As Twitch tries to crack down on viewbots, they are becoming more common on Kick

Amazon Prime Gaming is now part of Amazon Luna (Amazon’s cloud gaming platform). The Prime perks on Twitch aren’t changing. You need to connect your socials to your Twitch account, and submit your posts.

StreamYard has an updated AI thumbnail creator. If you have a scheduled stream, you can create a thumbnail right in StreamYard, with templates, smart background removal, profile picture integration and custom image uploads.

StreamYard added transcript support in 8 new languages, for a total of 15 languages, from English to Ukrainian.

As announced last month, Adobe Premiere is now available for iPhones.

Adobe also announced Photoshop Elements 2026 and Premiere Elements 2026. Premiere Elements has new 360-degree and VR video editing tools, free Adobe Stock media, and text styling tools.

Vimeo launched Workspaces, designed for enterprise customers.

Web Publishers and Search

Google Search update: AI Mode can now help you search and explore visually, including visual results and searching within an image. This is rolling out in English in the U.S.

Photos and Image Design

Adobe Stock turned 10, and is highlighting features for contributors: Monetization with Firefly bonuses (allowing your work to be used for training) and Missions (to create underrepresented content) and a new integration of Adobe Stock with Adobe Express. Adobe makes a point of saying they allow AI-generated and edited images as Stock photos. There’s also a new Adobe Stock Premium collection, with the highest quality images (requires a subscription, of course).

Snapseed, Google’s long-neglected photo editing app, has new AI powered features (of course). Google Research explains how the new Object Brush in the iOS app lets you simply draw a stroke on the object you want to edit. You can then adjust just that object.

Imgur, Reddit’s favorite image hosting platform, has pulled out of the UK in the face of fines from the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

Social Media

If you share a post from Instagram to Threads, hashtags are hidden behind a “show hashtags” toggle.

Some Instagram users in India can opt in to have Reels as the default tab when the app is opened.

Meta will start personalizing content and ads based on AI interactions in December. They will NOT personalize ads on sensitive topics like “religious views, sexual orientation, political views, health, racial or ethnic origin, philosophical beliefs, or trade union membership.”

Instagram head Adam Mosseri says they aren’t listening to you to serve ads. TechCrunch notes Instagram head says company is not using your microphone to listen to you (with AI data, it won't need to)

This should not surprise anyone: Buffer analyzed more than 18 million X posts, from more than 71,000 accounts. They found that X Premium subscriber posts got 10x the reach of posts from regular accounts. They also got more engagement (engagement on posts from non-paid accounts is effectively zero). This difference is not explained by the number of followers for each account. Link posts are penalized no matter the subscription. The best reach is for Premium+ accounts, which probably makes the $40/month subscription worth it for some users.

X has added the option to sort the list of accounts that liked one of your posts by mutual follows, account size, and recency.

Bluesky has made a patent non-aggression pledge, stating “Bluesky Social will not enforce any of the patents on any software invention Bluesky Social owns now or in the future.”

Communication and Collaboration

Google Slides and Google Vids are being upgraded with the Nano Bana AI image editing model. There is also a new option to edit images using custom prompts. This requires a Google Workspace business or enterprise account, or a Gemini subscription.

Technology.org: Google to Pull the Plug on Gmail's Free Email Consolidation by Removing POP Checkmail Feature and Gmailify. You will still be able to use other email accounts in the Gmail mobile app. Changes go into effect in January 2026.

Google Chat Spaces have a new Owner role. Only the Owner can delete the Space or promote Managers to Owners. Current existing Space Managers will be Owners going forward.

Google Chat update: Quickly find and use Google Chat apps and Workspace actions with the redesigned integrations menu. And for Chat app developers there are now display carousels and richer text formatting options.

Google Chat on the web now lets you add stickers using the combined GIF+Sticker button (previously it was just GIFs).

If you have access to AI-generated background in Google Meet on desktop, the option is now rolling out to the Meet app on Android and iOS devices.

Meet meeting organizers can now enable Gemini “Take Notes for Me” in the Google Calendar event, before the meeting starts. This requires a Google Workspace business or enterprise account, or a Gemini subscription.

Microsoft 365 Copilot-licensed customers will be able to choose between OpenAI and Anthropic’s Claude in Copilot Studio.

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