YouTube test features and experiments
YouTube product teams are constantly testing out new tools and features to help you find, watch, share and create content more easily. These test features (sometimes also called “betas” or “experiments”) are usually available for a short period of time and only for a small group of people.
If you ever notice that YouTube looks a bit different for you than it does for your friend or family member, you’re likely seeing one of these experiments. Be sure to give YouTube feedback and report any potential technical issues – our teams use this information and experiment results to help us decide if, when, and how to release these features more broadly.
Learn more about some existing feature experiments
To help you keep up with these test features, our TeamYouTube Community Managers will pilot keeping this forum thread updated with cool and interesting ones that we think you’ll want to know about! While this post won’t include every experiment, it’s a good place to start if you’re curious about what we’re testing out, or whether or not you’re currently seeing an experiment. To learn about previous experiments, check out this post.
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Last edited by Meaghan - TeamYouTube Jul 24, 2024
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Aug 28, 2024
[August 28, 2024] Testing new languages for comment topics summarized by AI: We're expanding our comment topics experiment to include all languages supported by YouTube comments (previously comment topics were just available on content in the English language). In case you need a refresher on this feature:
- This feature uses AI to organize large comment sections into easily digestible themes
- If you’re in the experiment group, you’ll see a new option to sort by “✨Topics” on some videos when reading comments on mobile
- Creators in the experiment can use these comment summaries to jump into comment discussions on their videos, or to draw inspiration for new content based on what audiences are discussing! If creators want to remove any ✨Topics, they can delete individual comments that show up under the specific topic. Also, these AI-generated ✨Topics are pulled from published comments only and cannot be created from comments that are held for review, contain blocked words, or are from blocked users
- We heard positive feedback when we launched this feature within large comment sections on English-language videos, so we’re happy to be testing it in more languages across more content! This test is rolling out on the YouTube mobile app to a small number of viewers + on videos with large comment sections
Last edited Aug 28, 2024
Sep 19, 2024
Oct 10, 2024
[October 10, 2024] Testing a prominent "Save" button for Shorts: To make it easier to bookmark Shorts that you love, want to return to, or want to watch later, we’re experimenting with a “Save” button in the Shorts player. If you’re a viewer in the test group, you’ll see the 'Save' icon which you can use to save Shorts to a new or existing playlist. To make room for the Save button, we moved our Shorts player menu around. In this experiment, the "Dislike" button is now housed in the 3-dot menu icon. To dislike a Short and share feedback, click the 3-dot icon in the top right of the Short you’re watching then select 👎 'Dislike' from the menu. We’re rolling this experiment out to a small number of viewers on mobile devices and we’ll keep you updated as the test progresses!
Last edited Oct 10, 2024
Oct 15, 2024
[October 15, 2024] Testing AI-enhanced comment reply suggestions: To make it easier for creators to engage with their viewers via comments, we’re experimenting with updated, AI-enhanced comment reply suggestions that give creators editable suggestions in their own tone and style. If you’re a creator in the experiment, you’ll start to see these suggestions appear in the Comments tab or Community tab in Studio (depending on which Studio experience you have) and on the YouTube mobile app. Comment reply suggestions are completely optional and editable - if you do want to edit a suggestion, simply tap it to edit before posting the comment. This test is rolling out to a small group of creators at first and we’ll let you know when we plan to expand it to more folks!
- We wrote about this experiment and other exciting announcements when recapping the 2024 Made on YouTube event - learn more here ❤️