YouTube Adds ‘Green Screen,’ Most-Played, Gifting Features

YouTube is amplifying shopping features, adding an effect that lets creators use other backgrounds for shorts and offers a new monetization opportunity through gifting subscriptions. YouTube teased upcoming features that it claimed would make it easier for viewers to discover and buy from brands. At its Brandcast event in New York City, the Google unit touted new ways to engage shoppers, users and advertisers. One new feature allows two creators to simultaneously go live and co-host a single shopping stream, the idea being to double the audience for such events by drawing the fanbase of both creators.

In March, YouTube laid the groundwork for the joint shopping events with the pilot program “Go Live Together,” a mobile collaboration feature that lets creators invite guests to their live stream by sending out a link prior to going live together.

The additions “could also make YouTube more competitive with Instagram, which launched the ability for creators to go live with up to three people last year,” explains TechCrunch. YouTube also further integrated shopping with a new “view products” button that lets shoppers further explore sales items by bringing up a list of marketed items.

The Google unit also announced “live redirects,” which lets creators initiate a shopping live stream on their own channel, then redirect their viewers to a brand channel where there will be more to watch. This lets creators allow brands to leverage their fanbase while accessing “the key metrics and analytics associated with their live event,” TechCrunch says. The new advertising features are set to roll out later this year.

YouTube also released a new feature that identifies the most popular parts of a video, previously available on a limited basis through YouTube Premium. “The company says it’s adding a graph that people can use to easily locate and watch the most replayed parts of a video — something that could be particularly helpful for longer videos” or those without sections, timestamps or chapters, writes TechCrunch.

Additionally, YouTube Shorts creators can now liven their clips by using backgrounds from YouTube’s billions of videos. The feature, called Green Screen, “lets creators remix up to 60 seconds of video (or audio only) from any eligible on-demand YouTube video or other YouTube Short — as long as the original creator has granted permission to do so and the video isn’t flagged for copyright violations,” Variety reports.

YouTube has also added a way for creators to earn revenue from their audience with “membership gifting, a feature comparable to gifted subscriptions on Twitch,” says Search Engine Journal, explaining that “for viewers, it’s a way to support their favorite creators in a way that gives something extra to their community.”

Related:
YouTube Now Highlights the Most Replayed Parts of Videos to Let You Skip the Boring Parts, The Verge, 5/18/22
YouTube’s New Tool for Brands Means You Don’t Have to See the Same Ads Nauseam, The Verge, 5/19/22
YouTube Expands Access to ‘Clips’ Video Highlights Option, Social Media Today, 5/11/22
YouTube Shorts Gains a TikTok-Like ‘Green Screen’ Feature, TechCrunch, 5/11/22

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