YouTube
YouTube is a major video platform owned by Google — and it has grown to be one of the most famous social media destinations on the web.
YouTube Overview Updated March 18, 2021
YouTube Stories Today
Following the Music Recap earlier this week, YouTube is revealing the top trending videos of 2022 and other lists that more or less serve as a stand in for Rewind.
YouTube Stories Yesterday
Over the past hour or so, some YouTube for iPhone and iPad users have reported that the app is repeatedly crashing on open.
Following the first annual summary last year and subsequent seasonal ones, YouTube Music is starting to roll out the 2022 Recap today.
YouTube Stories November 22
YouTube is already a big home to podcasts, and the Google platform is slowly working to provide a more optimized experience. An official “Podcasting on YouTube” guide has now been released with best practices.
YouTube Stories November 18
A text-first social network that’s centralized, fast to post, and simple to consume should always exist. Twitter looks to be actively imploding (though it will probably limp through, like MySpace), and I think Google — more specifically YouTube — should just bite the bullet and replicate it.
YouTube Stories November 17
[Update: Official] YouTube for Android TV gains new animated splash loading screen w/ start-up sound
YouTube for Android TV is now receiving a fresh new startup or splash loading screen when launching the app from cold.
YouTube Stories November 16
YouTube has been building out its competitor to TikTok over the past couple of years, and it’s quickly becoming a force to be reckoned with. After announcing revenue sharing recently, YouTube Shorts is expanding the use of licensed music to up to 60 seconds.
YouTube Stories November 15
MrBeast surpasses PewDiePie as the YouTube creator with the most subscribers
One of the most popular YouTube channels out there, PewDiePie, has now dropped the title of the most subscribed-to channel. Now, MrBeast is the YouTube creator with the most subscribers.
YouTube Stories November 9
Last year, YouTube announced that its streaming service subscriber count hit 50 million, and that has now grown to over 80 million for Music and Premium.
YouTube Stories November 7
YouTube announced today that it’s bringing Shorts to TV screens with a player that’s optimized for the big screen.
YouTube Stories November 4
Following iOS last month, YouTube for Android now offers homescreen widgets that provide quick access to search and core parts of the app.
YouTube Stories November 1
As rumored in August, the main YouTube app is letting you subscribe directly to paid streaming services with what it calls “Primetime Channels” in the US.
YouTube Stories October 27
Following the main redesign at the start of this week, YouTube is rolling out a very nice change that means Shorts will no longer appear in the same tab as Videos on Channel pages.
YouTube Stories October 26
Announced on Monday, YouTube’s new, darker design is actively rolling out. How YouTube is laid out doesn’t fundamentally change, but taken together, these tweaks make for a more drastic upgrade than what was telegraphed earlier in the week.
While Google apps have generally removed the navigation drawer in recent years, some have brought them back with YouTube for Android and iOS being the latest example of that.
YouTube Stories October 24
YouTube is letting you vote on feature requests for its TV and gaming console apps
As of late, YouTube on smart/connected TVs has been a big focus area, and the company is letting the community vote on what feature requests the development team should prioritize.
After testing for the past few months, YouTube today officially announced several design updates, including Ambient Mode, to the video player across Android, iOS, the web, and smart TVs.
YouTube Stories October 21
YouTube quietly confirmed that there is set to be a substantial price hike to the paid-for family plan Premium tier. This has us wondering if you’ll continue paying after this price increase.
YouTube Stories October 20
YouTube Premium is getting its first major price hike. The service will now charge $22.99 per month for its family plan.
YouTube Stories October 17
YouTube expands 30-second audio ads, said to be 2nd most popular podcast listening destination
At Advertising Week New York, YouTube made a series of announcements on new marketing tools available on the platform. Most notably, YouTube continues its embrace of podcasts with 30-second audio ads.
For a small number of people, Google briefly tested a change to YouTube Premium that would make 4K videos unavailable to free users.
Discord gets official YouTube integration along with a cheaper basic subscription
Discord has long been known as an open-ended communication platform with tons of integrations for gamers and friends. Now, it looks like watching YouTube is officially supported in Discord with a new feature called “Activities.” Along with that, Discord is offering a new Nitro Basic plan for only $2.99.
YouTube Stories October 15
YouTube is Google’s latest app to add iPhone and iPad homescreen widgets with one of them in particular providing very convenient shortcuts.
YouTube Stories October 12
YouTube for Android TV is rolling out new tweaks to the player UI that have more than a hint of Material You.
YouTube Stories October 10
YouTube announced the ubiquitous social network concept of “handles” today to boost the community aspects of the video site as well as improve creator/channel identification.
YouTube Stories September 24
In recent weeks, YouTube has been testing a redesign of the video screen, and Material You tweaks are now coming to the homepage. The video site is clearly working on a big overhaul of its clients for all platforms.
YouTube Stories September 20
YouTube today announced two updates to its Partner Program (YPP) that make it easier to join and make money from the video platform, particularly YouTube Shorts. There’s also a new Creator Music catalog to add tracks to videos.
YouTube is full of millions of hours of content, and the platform’s recommendations system helps to push content you might be interested in to the home page and various recommended content areas. But according to a new study, the methods of controlling YouTube recommendations don’t really do much to influence what shows up.
YouTube Stories September 16
In recent weeks, YouTube has been slowly rolling out a new video page that tweaks several elements and, most notably, unifies the design across Android, iOS, and the web.
The experience of watching YouTube has been infiltrated by ads over the years as a means of maintaining the platform and supporting creators financially. Now, though, it really seems YouTube is pushing the boundaries with ads, showing as many as 10 unskippable ads during a single break.
Update: In a statement to 9to5Google, YouTube has provided more context around this increase in ads. See below for more.
YouTube Shorts has been a resounding success so far in becoming a clone of TikTok, and now YouTube is really opening the floodgates. Soon, YouTube Shorts will join the Partner Program, making monetization of the short-form video easy for creators.
YouTube Stories September 15
Google will now let you fine-tune the videos that appear in your Discover feed by blocking specific YouTube channels from being featured.
YouTube ML turns landscape video ads into Short-friendly vertical ones
YouTube Shorts are a big focus for the video platform and Google wants to make it easier for businesses to create vertical video ads.
YouTube Stories September 9
To help the huge educational sector, YouTube has launched Player for Education in the United States and Korea, which will offer ad-free playback and better recommendations for learning institutions.
YouTube Stories September 1
YouTube on Google TV and smart TVs tweaks its sidebar with ‘More’ section including movies
YouTube’s app for Google TV, Android TV, and other smart TV platforms is picking up a small tweak to clean up its sidebar with a “More” section.
YouTube Stories August 31
At the start of this month, Google Meet introduced live sharing that “allows all meeting participants to interact with the content that’s being shared,” and you’re now able to test it on YouTube.
YouTube Stories August 30
Susan Wojcicki became the CEO of YouTube in 2014 but held talks about a job as Tesla’s Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Elon Musk’s second-in-command before that.
YouTube Stories August 22
Earlier this month, a report revealed that Google TV was adding Nest Audio support, as well as Fitbit/Wear OS and smart home integrations. Details of a YouTube TV split screen mode and YouTube Shorts on televisions have now emerged.
YouTube Stories August 21
YouTube organically became a place for distributing and watching/listening to podcasts, and the Google video service is widely expected to offer a more optimized experience. This is starting with a YouTube “Explore” page for “Podcasts.”
YouTube Stories August 19
YouTube Shorts has been quickly picked up popularity, and now the short-form video app is picking up another idea from TikTok, watermarks on downloaded videos.
YouTube Stories August 18
Three Google apps already support Android 13’s redesigned media player, and the fourth is now the main YouTube client.
YouTube Stories August 12
Google is reportedly following Apple TV and Amazon Prime Video in letting users subscribe to other streaming services through a YouTube “channel store.”
YouTube Stories August 4
YouTube rolls out experimental ‘pinch to zoom’ feature for Premium users
YouTube has a program that allows Premium subscribers to access brand new features that aren’t quite fully baked. Today, YouTube dropped a new one called “pinch to zoom” for viewers that allows you to zoom into a video on-screen, even in landscape mode.
YouTube Stories July 29
YouTube now lets creators turn their existing videos into Shorts
YouTube has long been trying to catch up with platforms like Instagram and TikTok, which allow creators to make content that grabs your attention for just long enough before the video ends. While YouTube Shorts have been around for a while now, the platform is adding a new way to create them – from existing videos.
YouTube Stories July 19
YouTube partners with Shopify to add in-video check out
On tons of platforms, including YouTube, creators have a huge influence over what products are popular or viable for viewers. To make it even easier for viewers to buy products recommended by creators, YouTube is adding on-site check out so users won’t even have to leave the video for their shopping.
YouTube is making a major change to the Content ID appeal process by reducing the dispute procedure from 30 days to just 7 days.
YouTube Stories July 15
YouTube Billion Views Club reminds us that ‘Gangnam Style’ is 10 years old
That custom YouTube logo – aka “Yoodle” – you’re seeing today is meant to serve as a reminder that “Gangnam Style” is now 10 years old, and the first music video to start the Billion Views Club.
YouTube Stories July 14
DeepMind details AI work with YouTube on video compression and AutoChapters
Besides research, Alphabet’s artificial intelligence lab is tasked with applying its various innovations to help improve Google products. DeepMind today detailed three specific areas where AI research helped “enhance the YouTube experience.”
