YouTube updated its in-app discovery listings and also integrated its artificial intelligence-powered Ask Studio guidance with its support tools to make it easier to manage queries in a single workflow. The company is also testing product recommendations for potential creator partnerships.
First, YouTube is expanding its custom feed listings in order to make it easier for users to create and access personally relevant feeds based on conversational prompts.
Currently available to U.S. users, YouTube’s custom feed generation option provides another way to define the in-app experience by enabling users to tell YouTube’s AI system what they want to see.
YouTube is now making these custom feeds easier to access by adding them to the top navigation bar.
These custom feeds will also replace non-custom topic options in the top listing. YouTube's also moving the subscription and standard feed options, bringing them together into the top-of-feed display.
That should make it easier for users to integrate this AI-powered option and help them build a more personally relevant in-app experience.
For creators, YouTube is rolling out an integrated Ask Studio and YouTube Help chat element. This should make it easier for creators to generate AI guidance for their channel and connect with YouTube’s internal support for other queries.
YouTube’s Head of Editorial Rene Ritchie said this will mean that creators no longer have to switch between chat windows for each element.
YouTube is also testing product recommendations for brand content partnerships. These are personalized to each channel and could help creators find more relevant sponsorship opportunities.
As explained by Ritchie: “If you're an eligible affiliate creator, YouTube Studio is rolling out a brand new personalized product recommendation shelf right inside your shopping hub. These recommendations are based on your channel's past content and audience engagement and what's trending in your niche, like beauty, tech, or home.”
The new display will also show estimated commission rates for each potential partnership, providing more assistance for creators when considering their opportunities.
Finally, YouTube is expanding its Hype with Jewels creator donation option to more markets.
This is a combination of two products: YouTube’s Jewels are essentially an in-app currency that viewers can use to buy in-app digital stickers, which they can then send to creators to show their support during a livestream.
Users can purchase packages of Jewels, and creators get a cut from any sticker allocated during their stream.
YouTube’s Hype program, meanwhile, enables viewers to allocate Hype points to a video in order to boost its ranking and help it get seen by more people.
Hype with Jewels lets creators use purchased Jewels to add more Hype to videos, which will then help them get seen by more people.
As per YouTube: “Starting November 6, 2026, we’re expanding Hype with Jewels to eligible creators and viewers in the United States, Canada, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Spain, Turkey, and the United Kingdom.”
YouTube is also expanding the Hype limits for streams, with viewers now able to allocate as much Hype as they like to streamers.
Hype with Jewels is rolling out to creators in the YouTube Partner Program who have between 500 and 500,000 subscribers.
