Are you prone to falling asleep to YouTube videos? There’s a new sleep timer coming to the platform to help you schedule a shutdown.
Everybody’s favorite video streaming app is getting some fun upgrades. YouTube has announced new feature updates for the last few months of 2024, giving us a chance to enjoy some changes over the next few months. A YouTube blog post has revealed a list of the redesigns and updates, ranging from features like fine-tunable playback speed and visual improvements to make the interface more appealing.
Earlier this month, YouTube Shorts also announced some changes to its operation, the most significant one being the ability to upload clips that were up to 3 minutes long. The company stated that this was “a top requested feature by creators,” and that the upgrade could be expected starting from October 15. This covers only one part of YouTube’s platform updates, so let’s dive into what else the organization has been up to.
YouTube Features Update 2024: We Love Change and These Are All Useful Ones
YouTube’s redesign and updates are not groundbreaking by any means, but they still manage to improve some of the key aspects of using its services. The company has identified many different areas of improvement that may not have occurred to us on the daily, but now that we see the changes, we agree that using the app or website is going to be much more convenient to use.
YouTube’s feature updates for 2024 are said to largely stem from user feedback so it’s evident that there are a lot of perceptive users out there who have identified potential areas of improvement and reported back to the company on them. It’s good to see Google take user feedback into consideration and create an evolving system that caters to both creators and consumers. The company’s crackdown on adblockers has annoyed users considerably over the last few months, so the current changes are to be received more positively.
Hollywood Reporter stated the Google-owned video platform claimed an advertising revenue of $8.66 billion in Q2 2024, which marked a 13% hike from Q2 2023. The revenue fell below the expectations set by Wall Street, but they are nothing to scoff at nonetheless. With numbers like this, it’s in the company’s best interest to keep users coming back to appease their advertisers, so we also understand how these changes are imperative to supporting their overall business model.
YouTube’s mini-player update and the playlist contribution feature may be our top two changes in this round, but we’ll let you decide which ones are going to be the most integral to you.
The YouTube Mini-Player Update Allows for Easier Multitasking
The YouTube app has an efficient mini-player system already, but it can be a little inconvenient to interact with the rest of the app interface with a video playing already. If you want to continue setting up your queued videos to play in the background as you work on something else, then the mobile app has you covered.
You can now resize the mini-player more conveniently to suit your tastes, increasing its size when there’s more riveting content on the screen and bringing it back down to continue your search.
Collaborative Playlists? Now That’s Going to Be a Fun Change
Making playlists is something we’re all familiar with, and it’s always more fun when you can make it with friends and family to set the right tone for an event. The new collaborative playlist feature on YouTube will allow you to create a video playlist with your loved ones more easily, by simply sharing a link or QR code with them to invite collaborators.
You can use it to create a karaoke-themed YouTube video playlist for a girl’s night in or curate a list of true crime video diaries you can watch with your sibling when you have dinner together. The possibilities are endless. You can also customize the thumbnail for the playlist by adding in your own image or using good old generative AI to create one for you.
Later in the year, YouTube will also give users the ability to vote on the videos in the playlist, which will allow you to add and remove content based on popular demand. For creators, this can serve a different purpose. YouTube says a creator could use the feature to “have their viewers rank their favorite unboxings or reviews.”
YouTube Wants You to Rest Easy with Its New Sleep Timer
If you’re in the habit of watching YouTube videos before you fall asleep, then a sleep timer might help you avoid having to wake up at 3 am and turn off the random video that happened to wake you up.
You can set a timer to pause the video automatically after a specified time so the app will shut itself down in case you fall asleep. This particular YouTube feature update was already available to Premium users earlier in 2024, but now free users can also enjoy it.
Who Doesn’t Love a Shiny New Badge?
Just like Reddit acknowledges users for reaching specific milestones, YouTube is planning to create specific achievements for its users, which they will reward with badges. Users will be able to see the badges they’ve received on the “You” tab and admire all that they’ve been acknowledged for on the platform.
This could range from “being one of the first set of paid members of a creator’s channel, or correctly completing quizzes.” YouTube will start with a small number of badges at first, but the company plans to evolve the list of achievements over time.
YouTube Shorts is Getting a Newer Look
YouTube’s upgrades have also been extended to its YouTube Shorts. The video format is now capped at 3-minute videos and there are some changes in the designs of the icons and the layout of the screen. Remixing existing shorts and reusing their template is now a lot easier, so you can also jump onto trends more easily.
YouTube Shorts has been investigating the potential applications of AI for video backgrounds for a while, and it is backed by Google DeepMind’s latest model, Veo. The AI will now be used to support video generation on the app so you can get more creative with the content you create. The platform is also working on making itself more community-friendly so you’ll be able to access trending Shorts more easily to see what everyone else is watching, and your screen will also give you a preview of what people are saying about a clip from the Shorts feed.
Those who watch YouTube on their TV should see the user interface get a quick cleanup, especially when it comes to YouTube Shorts. These small changes across the platform are designed to make YouTube more engaging, while also eliminating some of the minor inconveniences of using the app. More changes could be expected to arrive later this year, but for now, these updates are noteworthy.
