10 New YouTube Features Added to Improve User Experience


new youtube features

More than 4 billion videos are viewed daily on YouTube. Clearly, the user experience is not driving away visitors.

Yet, YouTube is set to unveil new YouTube features and improved tools aimed at making the user and creator experience even more enjoyable and beneficial. These improvements — rolling out over the course of the rest of the year – should be welcomed by small businesses who are using the video platform to market their products or brand.

Here’s a quick look at the new YouTube features:

1. Improved Comments

While comments are welcomed, junk comments are a distraction the majority of users, if not all don’t want to see when viewing videos and sharing with like-minded people. The new ranking system is designed to lower the visibility of junk comments for a cleaner layout.

According to Kiley McEvoy, product manager at YouTube, this has resulted in lowering the rate of dislikes by more than 36 percent across YouTube.

2. Subscriber Notifications

With billions of viewers watching videos on YouTube every single day, it is safe to say there extremely loyal followers who love their channels. Content creators can use the new subscription notification feature to let their fans know they have uploaded a new video.

Fans will have access to opt in and receive notifications through their mobile and email every time a new video is published. Say good-bye to FOMO (Fear of Missing Out).

3. New Types of Cards

Promoting your content is one way of ensuring you will keep your current users, and you increase the number of new viewers. The new types of cards will make it possible to promote other content, sell merchandise, raise funds and more.

The first card is the Channel card, which will let you link the videos you create to other channels so you can share them with people you collaborate with. This interlinking can increase your presence by introducing your content to viewers you might have not considered in the past.

4. Easier Access to the Subs Feed

The subscription feeds lets creators see who is making the effort to watch the content that is being produced. The new sub feed will make it easier and faster to get to the subscriptions feed and update the YouTube mobile app.

With so many metrics available to measure user engagement, it will be possible to give priority or loyal customers personalized service to ensure they continue watching.

5. A Faster, More Useful Creator Studio App

With mobile continuing to increase as the preferred medium for consuming video content, the company is working on improvements to the Creator Studio app.

Creators will have more analytics tools to gain valuable insight for making informed decisions on how to better interact with their viewers and optimize their channels. This includes new notifications for taking action.

6. Video Management on the Go

Video is the mainstay on YouTube, and improving its functionalities is crucial. Based on the request of users, content mobility management now has two new features. The first one is the ability to update custom thumbnails from your mobile device and the second one is, the option to enable or disable monetization on your videos, no matter where you happen to be.

7. 360-Degree Videos

This is one of the coolest new YouTube features. New video capturing devices such as GoPro and drone based recording means a 360-degree can add a new dimension to the content we view. The recently added 360-degree feature lets the viewer see everything that is taking place at a particular location. If that is not enough of an immersion experience, YouTube is also working on adding 3D.

8. Better Live Streams

Live streaming is not only for video content. Entertainment, gaming, learning and more are part of the delivery system. Content creators, whether it be video, apps or games, will now have an easier time of setting up and managing their live streams.

The company also announced its upcoming YouTube Gaming app, which will give gamers a chance to take the improved live stream technology for a ride.

9. New Creator Community

As a social platform, YouTube thrives on the community of users it has created. This is responsible for the success it currently enjoys. The new Creator Cummunity will be a new online forum to encourage collaboration, share advice and give the company feedback on how to improve products and service.

10. Updated Creator Academy

An undeniable fact about the Internet is the way it has democratized education. Users from around the world can now access free classes from Harvard to Stanford and almost everyone in between.

The Creator Academy added more than 50 lessons and features designed to find the lessons you want learn more quickly. It also makes personalized recommendation on what to learn next.

YouTube says some of these new YouTube features will be available in a matter of weeks, while others will be released throughout the year after all the tweaks are finished.

YouTube Photo via Shutterstock

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Michael Guta Michael Guta is the Assistant Editor at Small Business Trends and currently manages its East African editorial team. Michael brings with him many years of content experience in the digital ecosystem covering a wide range of industries. He holds a B.S. in Information Communication Technology, with an emphasis in Technology Management.

7 Reactions
  1. YouTube is getting better. The only thing I don’t like is the link with my Google Account. It is like everything I do in one platform is accessible to the other.

  2. Hi Aira,
    If you created your YouTube account before 2009, you can go to this link
    https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/1637615?hl=en&ref_topic=3024171
    and unlink it.

  3. How could a small business owner use these new features?

  4. I seem to be in the minority in not thinking that Google “needs” a social network.

    Need is a very strong word and I guess from a marketer’s point of view we all need stuff which… we don’t really need.

    And you invest in things with that opinion and a lot of these things fail.

    Mostly they fail because they are not needed.

    • Hi James,
      You could argue there is enough social media outlet, and I will give you that. But a company is always looking for opportunities to get more customers, and social media is one of the ways to do in today’s digital ecosystem. For some reason, Google hasn’t found a way to do it with the same scale as others have. And as long as the company feels it needs it, we will just have see what they keep coming up with until it gets it right.