If you want to keep people’s attention on your product, gamification is one of the ways to do it. YouTube has realized that, and now it’s adding game-y features for both creators and viewers. At last month’s Made On event, it announced Hype, a sitewide leaderboard where creators with fewer than 500,000 subscribers can show up, bolstered by the enthusiasm of their communities.
And today, it announced another layer of gamification with Badges, which users can earn by doing things like being an early subscriber to a creator’s channel. They can then display those Badges across the platform.
“What makes YouTube special is the sense of community that creators foster with their viewers. And we’ve heard from viewers that they want more ways to display their support and, of course, flex those bragging rights,” YouTube said in a company blog post.
Subscribe to get the latest creator news
For now, there are “just a few” badges people can earn, it says. Those include “badges that celebrate unique-to-YouTube milestones, such as being one of the first set of paid members of a creator’s channel, or correctly completing quizzes.”
“Users can even earn badges for being a top listener of their favorite artist or having a creator heart your comment,” it added.
All the badges a user earns will appear in their “You” tab within the YouTube and YouTube Music apps. YouTube didn’t get specific about how users will be able to flex those bragging rights, but we figure they may be able to choose which badge(s) show up next to their usernames when they leave a comment under a video.
If you’re thinking, Wait, don’t I already see badges next to some people’s names? then yes, you’re correct, YouTube does already have badges. But those badges are strictly for Channel Memberships, and they only show up on that creator’s channel and in their live chat. So, for example, if someone is a paying member of Creator A’s community, they could get a cool badge showing how long they’ve been a Channel Member, but that badge won’t appear if they comment on Creator B’s video, or participate in Creator C’s chat. Those badges aren’t sitewide; they are only for the subscribed-to creator’s content.
These new Badges appear to be a way for users to show their dedication no matter where they are on YouTube. It’s a perk for viewers, and could add to creator discoverability and growth, too, since users checking out one another’s Badges might see a cool one and decide to check out the channel that awarded it.
YouTube says Badges will roll out to all users in the coming weeks. As for what else will roll out, YouTube announced Sleep Timer is coming to everyone today. It first introduced the feature—which shuts off video playback after a certain period of time, so your phone battery doesn’t cry—earlier this year as an experiment locked to Premium subscribers.
Also on the docket for rollout is an update to Playlists. Users can now upload their own thumbnails for the entire playlist (instead of it defaulting to the thumbnail of the first video in the list). Collaborative playlists are available now, too, so multiple people can contribute to and edit the same list.
But the most intriguing Playlist update won’t come until later this year: a voting system, where a creator’s viewers can, for example, vote on which of their videos is the best, and put all those videos in a dedicated playlist for newcomer viewers to enjoy. YouTube specifically says this feature “allows for further interaction with creators,” so it’s clearly aiming to continue building on other recent updates that turn the Community tab into a fan hub.
Last but not least—considering YouTube is now the most watched streamer on all of TV, and continues challenging traditional networks for watch time—YouTube has made “subtle enhancements” to its TV app that are meant to give it “a more cinematic feel, so you can settle in and get lost in the action” (…and watch more, longer, unskippable ads). Those “enhancements” include a new UI for Shorts and channel pages that are similar to desktop YouTube, where a featured video starts autoplaying when someone taps on the creator’s channel.
“Whether it was greater control, richer personalization, or useful features, we’ve been hearing from our users that they wanted to get the most out of YouTube in a way that’s unique to them. These updates are a direct result of that valuable feedback, and they represent just the beginning of our ongoing effort to make YouTube better for everyone,” YouTube said.
All of these updates add up to one thing: YouTube wants people to spend more time on its platform, and to spend that time becoming more dedicated to the creators they watch.
