New products, tools and features coming to YouTube for creators, viewer and partners in 2022

By Tom NewmanFebruary 11, 20229 mins read

Image Credit: YouTube

A Look at 2022 from YouTube’s Chief Product Officer Neal Mohan, highlights some of the highly requested features coming this year.

Last month, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki published her 2022 Priorities, featuring some of the latest figures and upcoming areas of focus for the video streaming platform, such as five trillion all-time views on Shorts. Mohan covers some more of the new features and tools coming to Shorts, Live and video on demand, based on discussion, data and feedback from the community.

YouTube Shorts

YouTube’s short-form video platform and TikTok competitor, YouTube Shorts has been adopted by many high-profile YouTubers and artists around the world. This year, YouTube are bringing new video effects and editing tools to Shorts, plus the ability to reply to comments with a Short. This is a key feature in TikTok and recently introduced to Instagram Reels, as a great way for creators and audiences to interact.

Along with the new effects, tools and comment replies, YouTube are integrating Super Thanks into Shorts to help fans support their favourite creators and provides creator with another revenue source.

Live

Thanks in part to the pandemic, daily live watchtime on YouTube more than tripled between January 2020 and December 2021. YouTube are introducing collaborative Livestreaming, allowing two creators to go Live, share ideas and bring their communities together. YouTube are also testing gifted memberships, a popular Twitch feature that lets users purchase a channel membership for another viewer in the livestream. This feature will be rolling out more widely in the coming months.

New Revenue Sources

In 2021, YouTube surpassed two million creators in the YouTube Partner Program. Outside of YPP, as stated by Wojcicki, YouTube are looking into new technologies to help creators further monetize on the platform with Web3, blockchain, NFTs and the Metaverse for interactive and immersive gaming. “For example, giving a verifiable way for fans to own unique videos, photos, art, and even experiences from their favorite creators could be a compelling prospect for creators and their audiences.”

Shopping

Without sharing too many details, YouTube hopes to incorporate shopping across the app, with shoppable videos and Live Shopping.

Video Credit: YouTube

TV

The TV was the fastest growing screen for YouTube in 2021, with January 2022 seeing an average watch time of over 700 million hours per day globally. YouTube are making TV navigation easier by enabling interactivity with a mobile. Users will be able to use their phone to leave comments, share videos with friends and more. The TV app is also being updated to streamline the Library and Live interfaces, as well as giving users more control over how they organize and watch content.

Insights

YouTube will be bringing new insights into YouTube Studio to enable smarter creation using YouTube and Google data. This is to allow creators to better understand viewer demand and help generate contrete content ideas for upcoming videos. YouTube are yet to further expand on this.

Viewers will soon be able to sort comments by Timed. Comments that reference timecodes will be sorted based on the time mentioned.

A feature unseen on other major platforms, YouTube are testing the ability for creators to set channel guidelines. This should better shape the tone of conversations on their channel.

Finally there are more features coming to YouTube Music too, to improve the listening experience. YouTube Music seem to be developing a normalize feature, that will reduce loud peaks and boost softer sound.