YouTube Announced 2026 Updates: A Complete Breakdown

Some of them have already appeared on the platform in one form or another. Others are actively being tested among small groups of users. And the third exist only as announcements for now, and it will be quite a while before we can truly understand how useful they will turn out to be.

However, all these updates have one thing in common — they show what YouTube itself will focus on in 2026, what type of content it will encourage, and most importantly, how this will affect our channels.

All updates were presented at the annual Made on YouTube event, detailed in articles and help guides. They were reviewed both by the platform’s own managers and experts.

We analyzed all of this and have simplified it for you.

In short, today’s topics are:

• A bunch of Shorts updates involving AI

• Major Live Streaming update

• New monetization opportunities for creators

And we’ll start with —

Updates for Shorts involving AI tools

Let’s clarify right away: AI will now appear in every other paragraph, and this applies not only to Shorts.

YouTube wants you to use its tools.

Officially, it’s “to simplify content creation for new creators and boost creativity.”

Informally — so you spend less time in third-party apps.

Together with Google DeepMind, the company developing advanced AI technologies, YouTube is creating the most powerful tool for video creativity: Veo 3 Fast.

It’s a fun tool, allowing you to generate various kinds of video clips or effects with minimal delay.

You can’t say that the examples of their generations look like a dream come true, but maybe you really needed to generate some neural creatures that can do all sorts of things in your videos.

Important point: it doesn’t matter whether you use built-in tools or third-party ones — all videos will still need to and will be labeled “made with AI.”

What other new features will be available in Shorts:

• Adding motion

Now we’ll be able to take any of our photos, then use the template videos offered in the Shorts editor, and with motion capture technology, make our photo move like in a video.

In the video from YouTube, the Product Director gave an example where she took her photo and, using this feature, turned herself into a ballerina and a Kung Fu master.

The next feature is —

• Video stylization: transform videos using new styles like pop art or origami. In short, YouTube has reinvented filters.

  Adding objects: you can create scenes and add any objects, such as a character, prop, or effect, using a simple text description. For example, a strange monster in your living room.

Is all this fun? Maybe.

Is it actually useful for creators? For now, we’re doubtful. But again, time will tell.

The next feature, though, doesn’t even invite sarcasm. AI-powered editing — that really sounds cool.

Who hasn’t dreamed of magically turning all filmed material into a brilliantly edited video?

Well, now YouTube will offer that possibility. Though only for Shorts, and as managers say, we’ll have to wait a few months for the release.

The essence of this new feature is simple: you mark any clips in your gallery, and the tool assembles them into a full video, arranging the shots correctly, adding music, transitions, and even a voiceover that reacts to what’s happening on screen (currently only available in English and Hindi).

Of course, it’s unlikely the tool will produce masterpieces, but if it can create something in the style of iPhone videos — Apple users know what we mean — that would already be a success.

Next on the list is the rather quirky Speech to Song feature. We won’t go into much detail. In short — it can turn almost any video with phrases or dialogues into a musical track for Shorts.

As pure entertainment, the feature looks fun. Someone brilliant might find a use for it and go viral, but for most creators, there’s little practical benefit.

The biggest update for Live Streamin

And we weren’t the ones who came up with calling it the “biggest” update.

It turns out YouTube found that, on average, over 30% of viewers watched live streams daily in just the second quarter of 2025.

They watched everything: from let’s plays to casual chats with Q&A.

So YouTube thought it over and decided that they urgently needed to add all sorts of new features here.

So what’s actually new?

For example, there’s a new rehearsal feature for live streams.

Previously, to check if everything worked, you had to start a private stream and then ask a friend to join via a link to see if all was okay. Now, there’s a dedicated feature for this.

Initially, the stream still starts privately, and once you’ve checked everything, you can go live with the press of a single button.

But that was just the warm-up. Let’s move on to the next one: the combined streaming format.

Now creators can broadcast both horizontally and vertically at the same time, while viewers join a single shared chat.

This is likely intended to help creators expand their reach by running two types of streams simultaneously, but time will tell what the real impact will be.

Another feature: stream-on-stream, or in original terms, React Live.

This update is particularly interesting because it clearly shows that reaction formats on YouTube aren’t just evolving—they are directly supported by the platform.

Now creators can pick any live stream from another channel and go live from a mobile device to react to it in real time.

The next feature will probably please many: “Best Moments” powered by AI for Shorts or Highlights.

The AI will automatically select the most exciting moments from your stream and create ready-to-publish short videos. It saves them all in drafts, and you decide what to post and what not to.

Check it out on your account, because this feature should already be available.

There’s also a new monetization method: streams only for channel sponsors.

But the interesting part isn’t just that the stream is for sponsors—it’s that during a public live stream, creators can switch it to sponsor-only in real time.

Quote: “This simplifies creating premium content available only to sponsors, while strengthening your community and attracting new paying subscribers.”

Whether this motivates viewers to become sponsors or annoys them—well, that’s still a big question.

The live stream block ends with another monetization update: side-by-side ads.

This new ad format displays ads alongside the stream. According to YouTube, it’s less intrusive for viewers while helping creators earn revenue without distracting the audience.

Though oddly, YouTube didn’t mention in their announcements that when these ads play, the stream’s own audio is muted.

So if you missed something because of the ads—sorry about that.

Moreover, managers say streams are so dynamic that they lack pauses, so here come our saviors, providing exactly that option.

Thanks, YouTube, we got it. Let’s move on to the final block.

New monetization opportunities for creator

Yes, besides the great sponsor-only live streams and side-by-side ads, there are other new monetization updates for creators.

Recently, the platform launched a Creator Partnerships Center(Hub), which you can find in Google Ads.

The idea is simple: the platform wants to help advertisers and agencies find creators and collaborate with them.

In the future, AI will also get involved, suggesting creators to brands who are suitable for purchasing ads from them.

What else is interesting?

Automatic product timestamps.

Previously, creators had to manually add product tags on the timeline, but now AI will automatically place a product tag at the moment the creator mentions it.

Tags can still be edited or removed, and overall, this should simplify work for creators.

Another automation feature — automatic product labeling.

YouTube is introducing an AI feature that will detect and label products mentioned in your video based on visuals, voiceover, and information entered during upload.

Here’s an immediate question: how does this actually help increase revenue if, for example, YouTube identifies and tags a product for which the brand isn’t paying you? That’s still unclear.

So, let’s talk about something more straightforward.

To foster relationships between creators and brands, YouTube is adding the ability to insert direct links to brand websites in Shorts.

The idea is that this link will function like an embedded UTM tag, providing statistics on the effectiveness of that advertising integration.

This way, creators can clearly show advertisers how their short videos drive traffic and generate conversions.

If you forgot, previously it wasn’t possible to add clickable links in Shorts descriptions. Apparently, YouTube received enough angry feedback from creators to bring this feature back.

Of course, we’d like to see even more cases where the platform truly listens to its creators. But as for strange features, especially during a grand announcement parade like Made on YouTube — fewer is better.

But, honestly, we’ve gotten used to it and aren’t surprised anymore.

Are you?