YouTube held its big annual product event on Wednesday and, as you might imagine, there were plenty of updates on the creator and generative AI fronts. One of the more interesting announcements at Made by YouTube is that you’ll be able to create custom feeds on a tab you can access from the platform’s homepage.

YouTube suggests you might have feeds dedicated to certain moods or interests. You might have one focused on workouts, another on long documentaries and one that surfaces new creators in a certain niche. Users in the US will be able to try custom feeds on the web, mobile and TVs soon. You’ll be able to whip these up using conversational AI prompts.

Creators can now arrange Shorts episodically, with custom thumbnails and sequential playback, after YouTube expanded its shows feature to that format. These seem ideal for microdramas, so if you’re into those, it might be easier for you to keep up with your favorite shows and watch episodes in order.

When it comes to comments, you’ll soon be able to leave a GIF under a video, because sometimes words aren’t quite enough to cut it. There’ll be a GIF library that you can search and choose from. This will be available in the YouTube mobile app globally sometime this fall. On the YouTube app on TVs, you can now use your voice to post comments via a text-to-speech tool, as long as your TV supports that.

The platform is expanding Ask YouTube’s capabilities to include more shopping features, such as receiving video recommendations and a comparison table when you ask for reviews of a certain product. You’ll be able to ask questions about products that are shown, but not mentioned in a video. That could be useful if you’d like to get your hands on something a creator is wearing, for instance. The chatbot will also let you continue a conversation from the search screen to the video player..

YouTube

There are updates coming to YouTube Music. You’ll be able to use the Ask Music tool to learn more about an artist (sort of like a modern version of Pop-Up Video) and adjust your song queue. A genAI-powered feature called Podcast Lineup is designed to help with show discovery. This will offer a short weekly preview of suggested shows and why you might like them before taking you to the podcast episodes. This is said to be a hands-free feature. Both Podcast Lineup and the Ask Music updates will be available to YouTube Music and Premium subscribers around the globe.

Elsewhere, YouTube has extended its exclusive Coachella streaming rights through 2030. In early 2027, YouTube will start piloting a Live auto-dubbing tool (initially for English and Spanish), so viewers can get a real-time translation of what a creator is saying in their preferred language.