Peggy K's Creator News

This week was YouTube’s annual “Made on YouTube” even t, with announcements that give a sneak peek into new features YouTube is working on that will start becoming available over the coming months. There’s updates for both creators and viewers. Here are the top updates: 👀 Customize your home feed with AI prompts. 📺 Shorts Series. Make a microdrama! 🦻Audio podcast recommendation guide. 📰 Posts in the Shorts feed and on TVs. ✂ Conversational video editor for Shorts and YouTube Create. ✨Ask Studio on mobile, with more help with understanding metrics and optimizing your videos. 🖼 Dynamic thumbnails, matching thumbnail to audience. 📊Shorts video A/B testing to help you find the best hook. 🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Communities: Easier commenting on TVs, AI-powered comment moderation, members-only communities, group messaging. 💎 Super-charged Hype with jewels. 🔴 “Watch with” expansion to live react to long-form videos. 💑 Go Live Togethe...

YouTube will start counting "Views" of long form videos and livestreams from the very first frame of the video. This matches how Shorts Views have been counted since March 2025. Creators can find "Engaged View" metrics in Analytics Advanced Mode to see stats that use the original views metric. Engaged Views are what YouTube uses for monetization eligibility and earnings. This likely means that public video views will increase when this change goes into effect on August 24th. Why is YouTube making this change? Email from YouTube about the views update This update does make view counts a little less confusing:  Views in all formats will be counted the same way. This better matches how Views are counted on other platforms.  This is especially useful for creators who make Brand deals. As YouTube says: We hope that having metric parity across all formats gives creators a clearer pi...

YouTube announced major changes to the YouTube Partner Program that take effect on February 1, 2027. Higher Shorts views and watch time eligibility requirements for new applications for ad revenue sharing. The requirements for the fan funding tier have not changed. New requirements to maintain your status in the program. More revenue from YouTube Premium Lite and new Shorts earning opportunities. Channels that are currently in the YouTube Partner Program do not need to meet the new eligibility requirements, but will need to follow the new requirements for maintaining your Partner Program status. Why the changes? Amjad Hanif, YouTube VP of Creator Product says : “ We want to make sure the earnings you get from the program are meaningful and allow you to reinvest in your channel. ” It’s so you can “build a business”. What he doesn’t say, but what I suspect is true, is that accounts...

This week YouTube renamed the Inauthentic Content monetization policy Generic or Repetitive Content. They added two new categories of content that violate monetization policies: Unsatisfying or Offputting Content and AI Personas Related to Sensitive Topics. In July 2025  YouTube renamed the Repetitious Content monetization policy Inauthentic Content. This was not a policy change. Instead the update was meant to "clarify that this policy includes content that is mass-produced or repetitive", including new examples. At the time it seemed pretty clear that this was addressing the masses of low-quality AI slop flooding the platform.  This update is a similar clarification. Note that this does not affect the  Reused Content policy . Are these new monetization policies?  YouTube says explicitly that this is NOT a policy change . Instead this is meant to be a better explanation of current policy. They also make cl...

AdSense for YouTube must be connected to your YouTube channel to enable monetization and be paid. In most countries, you are required to verify both your identity and your mailing address in your AdSense account.  Make sure your  Payee name and address  are correct in your AdSense account before you start the verification process. You will not be able to change the account Payee name after identity verification is completed. If you fail to complete verification by the deadline (45 days for identity verification and 4 months for address verification with a PIN ), monetization will be disabled and your AdSense account may be suspended. Note that if you use both AdSense for YouTube and AdSense for Content (ads on your own website), you only need to go through verification once. This is an overview of the AdSense Identity Verification process.  Watch a short video overview , or read on for details.  ...

You can now use Dream Screen in the YouTube Shorts editor to generate fantastic video backgrounds.  Dream Screen uses Google DeepMind’s Veo generative video model to generate short video clips. It was announced by YouTube in September 2023 , so it has been tested for over a year. Dream Screen is currently available in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. It may not be available on all devices. And YouTube makes clear this is still experimental. Generate a YouTube Short Background with Dream Screen 1.  Open the YouTube mobile app and tap the + button to create a Short. 2. In the Shorts editor, tap the Green Screen option on the right menu. 3. Tap the AI (pink sparkle) button at the bottom of the screen. 4. Describe what you want it to create. Currently the prompt needs to be in English. 5. Select a style (Vintage, Clay, Anime, Pastel, Digital) or leave it on None.  6. Tap the Create button to generate images....

🏆  YouTube now has achievement badges! Two weeks ago YouTube announced a whole slew of new features, mostly aimed at viewers.  One of those new features is achievement badges, which you can earn by taking quizzes, commenting, being an early channel Member, taking courses and listening to music.  Note that the badges are currently only available in the Android and iOS apps, and not on YouTube on the web.  Here's a quick overview , with more details below. How can you earn a YouTube Badge? There are five ways to earn a badge:  Answer YouTube quiz questions correctly (you can get started by taking my weekly quiz! ) Be one of the first people to join a channel's Membership program Complete a course on YouTube by watching all the course videos (find free and paid courses ) Have one of a select set of creators heart one of your comments (no, I don't know which creators) Be a top listener for one...

The maximum length of a YouTube Short is expanding from 1 minute to 3 minutes! Vertical or square videos up to 3 minutes long will be shown in the Shorts feed. The longer Shorts (should we call them Bermudas?) cannot contain copyrighted music or visuals (like TV or movie clips) or have a copyright claim. YouTube does offer free music you can use in the Audio Library in YouTube Studio. Note that the Shorts editor in the YouTube mobile app is still limited to 1 minute videos, but will be updated in the future. You can use your favorite editor like CapCut (which is what I used). This change goes into effect on October 15. It will not affect videos uploaded before October 15. Monetization of Longer Shorts If your channel is in the YouTube Partner Program, the longer Shorts will be eligible for Shorts ad revenue sharing . If your channel is not yet monetized, the Shorts views will count towards eligibility. For the expanded YouTube Partner Program for Fan Funding (Memberships, Merch...

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 st...