Creator Weekly: YouTube Watch With, Instagram AI-Generated Profiles, TikTok Comments

Hello readers! This week there are updates for YouTube (as usual), Instagram, TikTok, Twitch, AdSense, X, and more.

Top Updates

YouTube is expanding access to “Watch With” reaction live streams.
YouTube is making it easier to disclose Branded Content (paid promotions and sponsorships), with age and location gating and automatic labels.
YouTube has a new Co-Viewed metric that estimates how many people are watching together on a TV.
There’s a new Creator Insider video that explains the YouTube Algorithm. Watch it!
TikTok is adding new comment features including voice comments, polls and photo carousels.
Twitch Clips are available for DJ Program creators, but won’t include music.
Twitch paid Subscribers can post GIFs in the live stream chat.
Instagram now requires the “AI-Generated Profile” label for profiles featuring an AI-generated person.
AdSense will start counting ad impressions differently in February.
Chrome 154 will always ask permission before loading a site that does not use HTTPS.
Cloudflare could be blocking your site’s RSS feed.
Bluesky has added thread post numbering and more prominent Starter Packs.
X is forcing all US Creators to be paid via X Money, rather than Stripe.
Canva will shut down the remove.bg background remover tool in December.
Google Pics is a new AI image generation and editing platform for Google Workspace.
Google Vidsncan create a video summary of Google Docs, PDFs, and Word files.
Google Photos can now be edited and managed using Gemini Spark, including automated workflows.

YouTube Expands “Watch With” Live Streams

YouTube is expanding access to “Watch With” reaction live streams. If you are in the experiment you will see a “react live” button on eligible streams in the YouTube mobile app. Learn more.

Your camera locks on in horizontal orientation and is combined with the original stream to create a new vertical stream.
Concurrent viewership metrics, public views and watch time are attributed to the original stream.
The reaction stream can earn its own revenue.
Creators can disable this option in their stream settings.

YouTube notes that their Live discovery system “prioritizes authentic, real-time and interactive streams for viewers.” So you should be on camera and speak.

YouTube Branded Content Disclosure

YouTube is making it easier to disclose branded content. See the Branded Content policies and learn more from Creator Insider.

“Branded Content” is the new terminology for paid promotions, which is the industry standard. It includes any content “influenced by a brand partner in exchange for something of value”. It includes product placement, sponsorships and endorsements.
Updated “Includes paid promotion” disclosure label for branded content
Content can be gated by geography and/or viewer age.
Automated branded content detection will soon be used to enforce policies. YouTube may automatically add the disclosure label, but you shouldn’t rely on that.
Updated policy “clarifies that creators must comply with Google Ads policies, and emphasizes existing disclosure requirements.”

Instagram Adds AI-Generated Profile Labels

Instagram has noted that people don’t like it when they engage with a profile that appears human, but actually turns out to be AI-generated. To make that happen less often, Instagram is renaming the "AI Creator" label to the clearer "AI-Generated Profile" label for profiles that feature an AI-generated person.

The label appears alongside the profile and content, where it can be relatively easily seen.

And, importantly, this label is effectively mandatory if you want people to see your content. AI-generated profiles that aren't labeled may have limited reach, which can be fixed by adding the appropriate label.

TiKTok Comments

TikTok is adding new comment features. There are already text, photo and video sticker (GIF) comments. Now they are adding:

Voice comments, up to 60 seconds long. Rolling out globally to 18+ accounts.
Comment polls added by creators. Available globally.
Photo carousel comments. Add up to 9 photos. Available globally
Live Photos. This iPhone feature creates a short animation. Available globally.

YouTube and Video

YouTube is really trying to maximize your view count. There’s a new metric called Views (Co-Viewed) which accounts for people watching together on the same device, like a group watching YouTube TV or the main YouTube app on TV. Learn more. Creator Insider video.

Access in Analytics Advanced Mode under Metrics > Reach.
Takes up to 48 hrs to process
Does not affect public Views or monetization

YouTube is testing alternative retailers for tagged affiliate products in YouTube Shopping, to see if it improves shopping performance. This won’t impact product tags on videos where the Paid Product Placement setting is enabled.

If you are a YouTube Creator, watch this Creator Insider interview with YouTube’s senior director of growth and discovery, Todd Beaupre to learn how the algorithm works. The important thing to try to wrap your head around is that the algorithm doesn't push out your videos or your channel. It pulls in recommendations for viewers based on their viewing habits and interests. It's about the audience. And watch it for the myth busting.

If you watch YouTube on your TV, it’s easier to use your phone to engage. You don’t need to connect your phone and the TV, just be signed into the same account. You can use your phone to comment or subscribe, or browse for other videos to play on your TV.

On Twitch, Clips are now available to DJ Program creators, editors and moderators. But there’s a catch: Clips only include non-music audio, such as the streamer’s voice, crowd reactions and Chat hype. DJ Program streams also cannot be saved as VOD (video on demand) or used to create Highlights.

Also on Twitch, Tier 2 or higher subscribers can now send GIFs in chat. Streamers can disable this feature.

Web Publishing

AdSense will start counting impressions differently. Currently banner ad impressions are count-on-download, with an impression counted as soon as it begins to download on the viewer’s device. This is shifting to the industry standard begin-to-render counting, which is counted when the ad has downloaded and begins to render on the device. This will likely decrease the number of impressions, but more accurately represents how many times the ad has been seen. See the link for tips on how to run reports to estimate impact and best practices. This goes into effect on February 17, 2027.

This week Chrome 154 beta was released, with the main release in October. This is notable because the default settings will be updated to enable “Always Use Secure Connections”. If a site does not use HTTPS, Chrome will ask the user’s permission before loading the site. Well over 90% of websites use HTTPS, so this probably doesn’t affect you. However, if you’ve been waiting to implement HTTPS for some reason, now is the time to do that.

If you use Cloudflare to prevent your website or blog from being scraped by bots, you should whitelist the non-malicious RSS readers. If you don’t, your readers who follow your updates by using an RSS feed reader will also be blocked.

Social Media

On Bluesky, thread post numbering is out of beta. Now post threads are numbered automatically.

Bluesky is also highlighting Starter Packs (collections of profiles to follow) in the main search box. It’s also easier to opt out of Starter Packs if you don’t want to be included.

Starting this week, US creators monetizing on X will be paid via X Money, rather than Stripe. X Money is part of Elon Musk’s dream for turning X into an “everything app”, including financial services.

Tools

Remove.bg is a popular image background removal tool. It was acquired by Canva and will be shutting down on December 1. According to the FAQ, this is because Canva doesn’t want to maintain two platforms. While Remove.bg has a free option for lower resolution exports, Canva requires a paid account to use the tool.

Google Pics (pics.new) is a new Google Workspace AI image creation and editing tool that is integrated with Slides, Docs and Drive.

Uses the Nano Banana image editing model.
Easily isolate and edit objects without altering the rest of your image.
Modify and translate text in an image without disrupting the design or changing the font.
Change image dimensions for web, social media, print.
Upscales images to 2K or 4K
Maintains a version history so you can revert unwanted changes.
Generates multiple options from a single prompt.
When you edit an image in Docs or Slides, you use the Pics precision AI tools without switching apps.
It has the same sharing and collaboration options as other Google Workspace services like Slides and Docs.
Available with an AI Pro or Ultra subscription, Workspace Experiments, or Business or Enterprise Workspace account.

Use Google Vids to create a video summary of Google Docs, PDFs and Word files. This is available with an AI Plus, Pro or Ultra subscription, or a Google Workspace account.

There are new editing tools for Google Photos, using Gemini Spark. Learn more.

Spark can “handle complex, multi-stage workflows”, so you can prompt multiple actions as a single task.
You can set up recurring tasks with automated routines, like collecting weekly photo highlights.
You can organize and share private or group albums across apps like Gmail and Docs,
You can extract formatted text from screenshots or receipts
Edits are made to a new copy of an image so that the original isn’t changed.
New albums are private by default, and Spark asks for confirmation before completing actions.

You can now add custom instructions to Ask Gemini in Google Chat and Drive, and the Gemini side panel in Slides, Sheets and Gmail. Describe your style, tone and formatting preferences, and Gemini will save those instructions. See availability.

Gemini Audio models are being integrated with Google Workspace, allowing “real-time conversation”.

Gmail Live lets you search your email inbox for information. Available for AI Plus, Pro and Ultra; and Google Workspace.
Docs Live lets you “engage in real-time conversation” to “build structured, context-aware documents on the fly.” It can help you organize your thoughts and pull relevant details from Gmail, Drive, Chat and the web. Available for AI Pro and Ultra; and Google Workspace.
Keep Live can process a stream of consciousness and turn them into structured lists and notes. Available for AI Plus, Pro and Ultra; and Google Workspace.

Google’s latest music generation model, Lyria 3.5 is now available in the Gemini app. You can select the genre and style, start from templates and choose longer or shorter tracks.

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