YouTube Adds New Elements to Studio to Enhance Fan Interactions

YouTube’s providing more info on content performance, while it’s also adding more AI elements, in its latest update of its YouTube Studio app.

First off, YouTube’s refreshing the “Content” tab in YouTube Studio to make it easier to see the relative impacts of different content formats.

As explained by YouTube:

“We’re revamping the “Content” tab to better meet the needs of creators of all sizes and formats. The Content tab in studio mobile will now provide an overview of all formats, including videos, Shorts, Live, and Playlists, organized by their own respective shelf.”

So essentially, with Shorts becoming a much bigger element of the YouTube ecosystem, YouTube’s now looking to ensure that Shorts are specifically highlighted in the data, so that you can better understand how they’re driving your Channel performance.

Which is important. Shorts now generate 70 billion views daily, and are a key factor for an increasing range of creators. And viewers also want more short-form content, so YouTube wants creators to see these impacts, and put more focus on Shorts.

“There’s an option to see the list view of each format by clicking “View all” on the respective shelf. “Scheduled” will be an available filter chip only if a creator has content scheduled, in order to declutter the overview page and free up space for important performance data, like “Views” and “Likes”

So, essentially, you’ll now have a more simplified view of content performance by format. But really, it’s primarily about highlighting Shorts.

YouTube says that the updated display is rolling out to all creators “over the coming weeks”. 

YouTube’s also updating the “Comments” tab to make it easier for creators to manage interactions via the YouTube Studio app.

YouTube first announced upcoming changes to the Comments tab at its “Made On YouTube” event last month, and it’s now rolling out updates that are focused on enabling more interaction from Studio, as opposed to having to log into the YouTube app.

As you can see in this example, the “Comments” tab, which is being renamed “Community”, which will also include a simplified overview of audience metrics, including comment counts and returning viewer stats.

“We’re also adding a “Community Spotlight”, which will highlight some of your most engaged viewers, to make it easy for you to identify, engage with, and close the loop with them by responding to their comments.”

That’ll provide more ways to manage your viewer interactions within the management platform, which could be a big help for those looking to build their community.

YouTube’s also rolling out improved AI comment reply suggestions to provide more assistance on this front. Which feels a little disingenuous, but for those channels that receive a lot of comments, it could be a help.

YouTube says that it will be rolling out these updates over the coming months.

YouTube’s also expanding its roll out of AI-generated content summaries on selected English language videos.

Launched in live testing back in August, YouTube’s AI-generated summaries provide a supplementary description of what’s shown in a video clip, which is not designed to be a replacement for the creator-generated description as such, but another element to help users find what they’re looking for more specifically.

In terms of practical value for YouTube users, these probably won’t add a lot, but they may help YouTube, and parent company Google, get a broader understanding of video content.

Finally, YouTube’s also testing out a new, interactive chatbot within YouTube Studio (on desktop) to help creators find more info on how each element works.

Which makes sense. Chatbots are everywhere now, and it could help creators get more relevant info faster, by enabling them to post conversational queries.

Some handy updates for YouTube creators, which could have variable benefits.

You can learn more about YouTube’s latest updates here.