YouTube Announces Big Updates Coming This Year
By Movieguide® Contributor
YouTube announced the major updates users can expect to roll out across the platform before the end of 2024.
The changes largely center around the viewers’ experience, offering updates to make their viewing more customizable. For example, video playback speed, which has been limited to eight set speeds (from 0.25 to 2x speed) will now be adjustable at 0.05 increments.
Playlists are also getting an update, allowing users to easily collaborate when making these groups by sharing special links or scanning a QR code. Users will also be able to set custom thumbnails for their playlists or have AI generate a relevant image. Different YouTube users will also be able to vote on playlists, allowing them to be shared across the platform.
Viewers who use YouTube to fall asleep will get a major update as users will soon be able to set a sleep timer, specifying how long they want a video to playback before their phone is allowed to turn off. The options will range from 10 minutes to one hour or until the current video ends.
YouTube is also working to help creators further develop their communities on the site as their viewers will be awarded badges that label certain milestones, such as being the first paid supporter of a specific creator, correctly completing a quiz, being a top listener for an artist, or having a YouTuber like a message.
These changes come as YouTube works to make itself more in line with other streamers and TV providers. Though it has established itself as the winner of the streaming wars – even surpassing Netflix – the platform appears to want to align itself with the mainstream streaming experience as even more people turn to the site for offerings like YouTube TV and NFL Sunday Ticket.
YouTubers, for example, will soon be able to label their videos as specific shows or seasons, allowing them to create full-blown TV shows of their own accord. YouTube has also seen incredible growth in its TV interaction in recent years, creating a further need for it to align with traditional TV.
All of these changes are set to hit the site by the end of the year.
Movieguide® previously reported:
YouTube is planning a major overhaul of its TV app as it works to stay on top in the streaming wars.
During a “Made on YouTube” event this week, the company announced updates to the TV feature of its app, including new ways to categorize content that will more closely resemble other streaming platforms, and “immersive previews” that will play when a user visits a creator’s page.
“When we launched Primetime Channels [YouTube’s third-party subscription offering] in the main app, one of the things we really wanted to make sure we delivered was, if you look for [HBO’s] HOUSE OF THE DRAGON and you go to that channel page, you want to look by season and episode and have this really rich, immersive channel page experience which people have come to expect around episodic content,” Christian Oestlien, VP of product management at YouTube, told The Hollywood Reporter.
He continued, “Turns out, a ton of our creators are really leaning into that format too. They’re doing 20 to 40 minute videos, there’s kind of a season arc to it, there’s multiple episodes in it, so we’re giving them the tooling to really create what we’re calling Creator Show Pages so that if you’re a fan of Michelle Khare, you can go to her channel page and actually just kind of go on that sort of binge episodic experience that I think the lean back TV environment really lends itself to.”
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