YouTube News
YouTube unveiled GIF comment replies and member-only fan communities
Made on YouTube also brought TV voice commenting, a personalized moderation test, and paid Jewels for its Hype fan-promotion tool.
YouTube unveiled the changes Wednesday at Made on YouTube, starting with comment upgrades viewers have asked for as rivals add polls, voice replies, and richer threads elsewhere. Commenters can drop GIFs in replies, and people watching on connected TVs can speak comments instead of typing on a remote.
Creators who livestream will get a personalized comment moderation experiment YouTube is still testing. The platform already filters comments automatically, but the new option is meant to tune enforcement to each channel, including on live videos where volume spikes.
Channel Memberships are picking up paid, members-only communities where subscribers post and discuss among top fans. YouTube is also building a channel memberships page so viewers can browse perks that match their interests.
The Hype tool, which lets fans push smaller channels' videos onto leaderboards, is gaining Hype with Jewels. Fans were limited to three free hypes per week; Jewels act as a virtual currency to hype more often. YouTube said motivated fans will see their handles permanently listed in a hyped video's description. Viewers have hyped more than 75 million unique videos over one billion times since Hype launched.
YouTube's in-app video sharing with friends and family will add group chats in the coming months, including quick raw clips users record inside those threads.