YouTube Reveals 9 New Features at Made On YouTube 2024

YouTube has unveiled exciting new features during the “Made on YouTube” event, held on September 18, 2024, at Pier 57. CEO Neal Mohan, alongside product executives and top creators, introduced nine tools designed to assist creators in showcasing their creativity, building communities, and expanding their businesses.

Here’s a brief overview of the new features announced:

Veo for Dream Screen: The Dream Screen feature, which allows creators to generate backgrounds for YouTube Shorts, will soon incorporate Google’s DeepMind technology. This enhancement aims to provide more realistic backgrounds and standalone video clips.

Inspiration Tab: The upgraded Inspiration tab in YouTube Studio helps creators transform curated suggestions into complete projects. AI will assist in refining ideas, titles, and thumbnails to match creators’ unique styles.

Communities: This new feature enables creators to establish dedicated spaces on their channel pages where fans can post art, share ideas, and engage with one another.

Community Hub: A new addition to the YouTube Studio app, the Community Hub helps creators connect more effectively with their audiences by offering AI-driven suggestions for replying to comments.

Auto Dubbing: Auto dubbing will soon be accessible to more creators, allowing them to add audio tracks in various languages, enhancing global accessibility.

Hype: This feature lets viewers support smaller creators by “hyping” their videos, which helps these videos gain visibility on a weekly leaderboard, thereby increasing their reach.

YouTube Shopping: Following its success in the U.S. and South Korea, YouTube’s shopping program is now expanding to creators in Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Gifts Powered by Jewels: This feature enables viewers to interact with live streams on vertical video formats, providing creators with an additional revenue stream.

Big Screen Experience: Creators will soon have the option to organize their content into seasons and episodes, enhancing the TV viewing experience. Additionally, autoplay features on channel pages will engage viewers right from the start.

Dream Screen With Google DeepMind’s Veo

The standout announcement from this week’s “Made on YouTube” event was the introduction of Google DeepMind’s Veo.

YouTube previously launched Dream Screen, which enables creators to generate unlimited backgrounds for YouTube Shorts. With millions already utilising Dream Screen, YouTube revealed its intention to integrate DeepMind’s Veo into YouTube Shorts later this year.

This integration will allow creators to create more immersive backgrounds. For example, BookTubers could find themselves surrounded by the setting of the classic novel, *The Secret Garden*, while fashion designers could instantly showcase creative design ideas to their audience.

Soon, creators will also be able to generate standalone six-second video clips for their YouTube Shorts using Veo. If, while reviewing footage, a creator feels something is missing, they can easily create a clip that fits seamlessly with the content they’ve already filmed.

All creations generated with Veo will feature a SynthID watermark and a label indicating that they were produced using AI.

Inspiration Tab Also Gets A Makeover

YouTube also introduced an updated Inspiration Tab. With 20.4 million creators worldwide, coming up with fresh ideas can be a challenge.

The revamped Inspiration Tab in YouTube Studio will serve as a brainstorming tool powered by generative AI. It will provide suggestions that creators can turn into complete projects, including video ideas, titles, thumbnails, and outlines tailored to their style.

Next year, YouTube plans to launch a new shortcut that will allow users to access the Inspiration Tab directly from various sources of inspiration, such as top comments, other videos, or their own content library.

Four New Features To Build Stronger Connections

YouTube recognises the unique connection between creators and their fans, so they have launched four new tools to strengthen these relationships:

Communities
This feature provides creators with a dedicated space on their channels to discuss videos, share fan art, and connect with their audience. Communities are currently available on select channels, with plans for broader access in early 2025.
Hype
This new feature highlights up-and-coming creators by allowing fans to “hype” their videos, increasing their visibility. Hype has already been tested in Brazil, Türkiye, and Taiwan and will soon be introduced in additional countries.
Auto Dubbing
YouTube’s automatic dubbing tool enables creators to create translated audio tracks, making their content accessible in various languages. The tool will soon support more languages and is being tested for features that replicate tone and ambiance, enhancing the listening experience.
Comments Tab
YouTube is updating the Comments tab in the YouTube Studio app to serve as a “Community” hub for better engagement. To assist creators in managing comments, YouTube will offer AI-powered suggestions for responses, along with tools for community highlights and audience insights.

Three New Ways To Support The Creator Economy

According to a report by Oxford Economics, YouTube’s creative ecosystem contributed over $35 billion to the U.S. GDP in 2022 and supported more than 390,000 full-time equivalent jobs.

“YouTube is currently the only platform that shares revenue with creators on a large scale across various formats,” said Voolich. “Our YouTube Partner Program offers more payouts than any other creator monetization platform, with $70 billion distributed to creators, artists, and media companies in the past three years.”

YouTube has also announced three new features aimed at supporting the Creator Economy:

Jewels and Gifts
YouTube has introduced digital items designed to enhance real-time fan interaction and provide creators with additional revenue streams. This feature will first launch in the U.S. for vertical livestreams, making it easier for viewers to engage, express enthusiasm, and participate actively in the live experience.
YouTube Shopping Expansion
With over 250,000 creators now using YouTube Shopping, the affiliate program is currently available in the U.S. and South Korea. YouTube is expanding into Indonesia through a partnership with Shopee and will soon extend the program to Thailand and Vietnam, allowing more creators to promote products and grow their businesses globally.
Access to Living Rooms
Creators are increasingly developing content tailored for the big screen, with TV revenue rising over 30% year on year. To support this trend, YouTube has introduced features that allow creators to organize content into seasons and episodes, simplifying how viewers follow their favourite shows. Additionally, YouTube is enhancing the TV experience with immersive content from creators’ channels, improved subscription management, and easier access to links in video descriptions.

The Biggest Splash For YouTube Since Brandcast

The annual YouTube event made a significant impact by launching nine new features at Made on YouTube 2024, marking its largest announcement since Brandcast in May.

This development highlights the importance of creators to YouTube’s success. They contribute their ideas, stories, and visions to the platform, uploading over 500 hours of content every minute.

For brands and their agencies, the implications are substantial. YouTube has become the second-most visited website globally, following Google Search. As of September 2024, the platform boasts over 2.5 billion monthly users, who watch more than 1 billion hours of videos daily. Additionally, YouTube Shorts now sees over 70 billion daily views from its logged-in users.

This environment allows brands and agencies to connect with potential customers while they search, browse, or watch videos on YouTube. At Brandcast in May, YouTube introduced new ad options, highlighted creator influence, and shared impressive viewership metrics. At Made on YouTube, the platform unveiled numerous new products and updates designed to help creators foster engaging communities, build sustainable businesses, and showcase their creativity.

As fans of the movie Ghostbusters (1984) might say, this is indeed a noteworthy moment in YouTube’s journey.