YouTube Adds New Prompts for Shorts Content, New Insights into Channel Recommendations

YouTube’s adding another way for users to respond to viewer questions, with a new comment sticker for Shorts clips, while it’s also looking to provide channel managers with more insight into why their clips are recommended, or not, via YouTube’s algorithms.

First off, on the new comment sticker – YouTube’s trying out a new option that will enable creators to use video comments as a more direct prompt for their future Shorts clips.

As explained by YouTube:

“Beginning in the next two weeks, we’ll run a small experiment for creators on iOS that gives creators the ability to reply to VOD and Shorts comments with a sticker in their Shorts video”

Which, in practice, will be similar to the question sticker that TikTok and Reels users can add, in order to use a comment as the basis for their video response.

That’ll facilitate more prompts for Shorts clips – and with 1.5 billion YouTube users now engaging with Shorts content every month, a lot more creators are no doubt looking for a way in, and these simple sticker prompts could be a great way to keep Shorts content flowing.

It essentially reduces the creative workload, by enabling a more organic flow of content and response, which, again, has already proven popular in other apps.

And it could be particularly handy for brand YouTube channels – we’ll keep you updated on any progress.

On another front, YouTube’s also expanding its Google Maps display links on videos that mention a location.

First launched in December last year, the Maps option adds a map display within the video description, which can help provide more location context for viewers.

Initially, these map links were only available for mentions of restaurants and cafes, but YouTube’s now expanding these links to include travel, recreational and businesses.

YouTube’s also running a new experiment that will provide creators with more context as to how their content is being recommended by YouTube’s algorithms (or not).

“A small number of creators [will see] a data story in YouTube analytics explaining the audience signals that affect recommendations based on the creator’s individual content, and with context about the creators individual performance and benchmarks.”

As you can see here, some users will now see a ‘See how YouTube recommends content’ prompt in their Studio Analytics overview, which, when tapped, will provide more context as to how their specific video uploads are performing on key recommendation measures.

That could be a handy tool to assist in your content planning, providing additional insight into what you’re doing right and wrong on these elements.

And finally, YouTube’s also adding the ability to edit a channel name, banner, avatar and description to YouTube Studio on mobile, providing more capacity to manage your channel on the go.

These are interesting updates, which will have varying levels of value, with the new Shorts sticker and Map display links potentially providing the biggest benefit for brands.

You can learn more about these updates here.