YouTube Music will let you make custom playlist art with gen AI, adding ‘Speed dial’

Abner Li | Oct 24 2023 - 7:00 am PT

YouTube Music announced today that it’s adding generative AI to let users create custom playlist art, while it made official the “Speed dial” redesign.

Today, a playlist takes the artwork of the first four tracks and will present it in a grid. Customization, like the ability to upload your own image, has been a long-running feature request.

Google is now addressing that by introducing an AI image generator to YouTube Music. When editing a playlist, tapping the artwork will let you start customizing. Start by selecting a category: Colors, Cycles, Travel, Moods, Nature, Animals, Landscapes, Food and Drinks, Fantasy, Workout, or Humor.

You then get a Mad Libs-esque prompt, like the equivalent wallpaper feature on the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro. Instead of typing, you select from a carousel of options. In the case of animals, you select the creature and then the art style with some generated options shown above. There’s also a “Randomize” button below. Select the one you like and hit “Save” in the top-right corner. It will then appear for the playlist on all surfaces.

This is rolling out starting today as an experimental feature for English language US users.

Stay tuned for expansion to other regions and languages globally.

Meanwhile, YouTube Music is replacing “Listen again” with “Speed dial.” Google says this “new feature on the Home tab that will help you quickly explore and listen to the songs and artists you’ve got on repeat.”

As previously spotted in testing, you go from 20 items in a carousel to 9 presented in a 3×3 grid. This can include albums, artists, and playlists.

A tap immediately starts playback in the miniplayer and notably does not open the full Now Playing screen, while a second click opens the album page. “More” in the top-right takes you to the same screen that’s available today.

What you’re currently listening to is highlighted in white and with an animation at the center. This YouTube Music Speed dial is rolling out “in the coming months” on Android and iOS.

The speed dial and generative AI art for playlists join other recent YouTube Music launches like the Samples tab, “Create a radio,” YouTube comments, and real-time lyrics.