YouTube’s looking to make it easier for creators to show their audience appreciation, with a new option to like video comments in bulk. The platform has also expanded access to its Effect Maker tool, which enables creators to create, publish and manage effects for YouTube Shorts.
First, YouTube’s new Comments to Heart option will essentially automate engagement, with YouTube creators now able to select an option at the top of their reply stream, allowing them to like comments that YouTube’s system has detected as positive.
Sure, I mean, why individually engage with anybody at all, why not just let an automated system simulate personalized engagement. That seems like a valuable and beneficial addition to a social media platform.
Skepticism aside, YouTube said this will help channels with a high volume of comments maintain audience engagement.
As per YouTube: “We know hearting comments is an essential tool for community recognition, yet the current manual process of reviewing and hearting comments individually can be time-consuming, especially for high volume channels. Our new feature Comments to Heart will help creators identify comments and will allow them to heart them at once rather than individually on Studio mobile.”
It’s another example of artificial intelligence gradually draining the humanity out of online interactions for the sake of engagement.
YouTube says the feature is rolling out to all creators this week.
YouTube also said that it’s rolling out live stream Gifts and Jewels to more markets, which will provide more ways for live stream viewers to donate to their favorite creators.
YouTube’s Jewels are essentially an in-app currency that enables live stream viewers to purchase digital stickers they can then apply during a live stream, with a percentage of the purchase price going back to the streamer.
YouTube launched Jewels with U.S. creators back in 2024 and expanded access to streamers in Canada and Korea earlier this year.
Jewels are also being made available to live streamers in Australia, Indonesia, New Zealand, Taiwan and Thailand, marking the biggest expansion of the option as yet.
YouTube also announced that more creators will have access to its Effect Maker platform, which is a web-based tool that allows creators to create, publish and manage effects for YouTube Shorts.
YouTube launched Effect Maker to selected creators in August, and now, it’s opening up access to users in all regions who have access to Advanced Features, meaning users who have verified their accounts.
YouTube said it’s also added some new effects options: “This month, we launched AI video, which allows creators to build simple AI video effects with open prompts that don’t require visual scripting. You can use AI video as a standalone feature or with other effect maker features to trigger video transformations.”
YouTube also added effects to its Editor channel permissions, which will enable effect creators to publish effects on behalf of another channel, providing another way to distribute and share all-new effects.
That will help YouTube broaden the creativity behind these options, which could lead to new viral trends based on user-generated options.
