YouTube Unveils 9 Features at the "Made on YouTube" Event

YouTube’s 2024 "Made on YouTube" event, held on September 18th at Pier 57 in New York City, brought a slew of new tools and features designed to empower creators, foster community growth, and enhance business opportunities. CEO Neal Mohan, alongside YouTube product executives and top creators, introduced nine game-changing features aimed at transforming the creative landscape on the platform. Here’s a breakdown of the exciting announcements and what they mean for creators.

1. Veo for Dream Screen

What It Is: Veo is an advanced video generation model powered by Google DeepMind, enhancing YouTube Shorts’ Dream Screen feature. Dream Screen already allows creators to generate custom backgrounds, but with Veo, creators can now generate more realistic backgrounds and even standalone video clips for their Shorts.

Why It Matters: This update gives creators more flexibility to produce engaging, visually appealing content without needing expensive equipment or complicated editing.

2. Inspiration Tab

What It Is: The Inspiration Tab in YouTube Studio is receiving a major upgrade. This tab will now curate personalized suggestions that creators can develop into fully-fledged projects. The AI will help refine generated ideas, titles, thumbnails, and even video outlines to match a creator’s unique style.

Why It Matters: With AI-driven support, creators can streamline their content creation process, reducing the time spent brainstorming and enabling faster production.

3. Communities

What It Is: Communities is a new feature allowing creators to enable a dedicated space on their channel page where both creators and their audience can share posts, artwork, and ideas, creating a deeper connection around shared interests.

Why It Matters: This feature offers a more interactive and personalized way for creators to engage with their audience, fostering stronger, long-lasting communities.

4. Community Hub

What It Is: The Community Hub is a revamped section of the YouTube Studio app that makes it easier for creators to manage audience interactions. AI-enhanced tools provide comment reply suggestions, allowing creators to stay engaged with their growing audience effortlessly.

Why It Matters: As channels grow, keeping up with comments can become challenging. This feature ensures creators remain responsive without getting overwhelmed.

5. Auto Dubbing

What It Is: YouTube’s auto-dubbing feature, which automatically adds audio tracks in different languages, is expanding to hundreds of thousands of additional creators. This makes content more accessible worldwide by breaking down language barriers.

Why It Matters: Auto-dubbing allows creators to reach a global audience, making their content accessible to non-English speakers and increasing potential viewership.

6. Hype

What It Is: Hype is a new feature designed to help smaller creators gain visibility. Viewers can now “hype” their favorite videos, pushing them onto a weekly leaderboard. This system is an extension of the like button, providing a way for fans to directly support their favorite creators and help them gain new audiences.

Why It Matters: For smaller creators, exposure is key. Hype helps boost visibility and offers a new way for fans to support creators they love.

7. YouTube Shopping Expansion

What It Is: Following its success in the U.S. and South Korea, YouTube Shopping is expanding to creators in Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam. This program allows creators to integrate shopping into their videos, offering another revenue stream.

Why It Matters: With the expansion, more creators across the globe will be able to monetize their content through YouTube’s shopping features, boosting their business potential.

8. Gifts Powered by Jewels

What It Is: Jewels, a new feature in YouTube’s vertical live streams, enables viewers to send “gifts” during live content. These gifts allow fans to express excitement and support creators, providing another way for creators to earn revenue.

Why It Matters: This feature adds an interactive layer to live content, creating more engaging experiences for viewers while allowing creators to monetize their streams.

9. Big Screen Experience

What It Is: To improve the TV viewing experience, YouTube is introducing tools that allow creators to structure their content into seasons and episodes. Additionally, channel pages will soon support autoplay, automatically starting a featured video to engage viewers from the get-go.

Why It Matters: As more viewers watch YouTube on smart TVs, these updates will help creators optimize their content for the big screen, giving it a more polished, TV-like presentation.

Made on YT

The "Made on YouTube" event showcased YouTube’s commitment to empowering creators with cutting-edge tools, AI enhancements, and community-building features. From AI-powered inspiration tools to global shopping expansions, YouTube’s latest features provide creators with exciting new ways to grow their channels, engage their audiences, and monetize their content. As these tools roll out in the coming months, creators of all sizes will have the opportunity to benefit from YouTube’s continued investment in their success.