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YouTube has announced a larger wave of new features for viewers and creators at Made on YouTube 2026. Three changes stand out: users can create their own custom feeds using a text prompt, creators can organize Shorts into seasons and episodes, and a new Gemini-based editor is meant to control parts of video editing through conversation.
YouTube is thereby shifting several limits the platform has had until now: recommendations become more user-controllable, Shorts get a serial structure, and generative AI moves from individual effects to a production tool.
Custom Feeds: users can steer the algorithm more
With custom feeds, users will be able to create their own tabs on the YouTube homepage and describe in natural language which content they want to see. YouTube cites examples such as podcasts for a particular commute, long documentaries for the evening, or new DIY creators.
The feeds are meant to update automatically with new recommendations. According to YouTube, they will initially launch in autumn 2026 in the US on web, mobile and TV. The standard home feed remains in parallel.
This matters for brands and creators because recommendations no longer come only from the classic personalised main feed. Thematic clarity, recognisable formats and a clean content positioning may become more important as users themselves define more precisely which kind of content they want to discover. We classified how YouTube already delivers content to audiences in our article on the YouTube-Algorithmus 2026.
Shorts turn into seasons and episodes
YouTube is also introducing Shorts Series. Creators can structure Shorts into seasons and episodes, with their own order, customised thumbnails and continuous playback. According to YouTube, the feature is rolling out from now on across web, mobile and TV.
The move is clearly aimed at episodic short-video content and microdramas. For the first half of 2026, YouTube reports more than 6,5 billion views of microdrama content. Watch time for this content rose by more than 50 percent year on year, and on TVs the number of views even rose by more than 90 percent.
This fits the broader development of YouTube as a living-room medium. Our analysis of YouTube and Connected TV in Germany shows more on this.
Gemini becomes a conversation partner for video editing
Production is also becoming more automated. YouTube is integrating Gemini Omni into a conversational editor for Shorts and the YouTube Create app. Creators can use text instructions to, among other things, shorten speech, sync music, add text hooks or rearrange frames, and then continue working manually.
YouTube Studio receives further AI features in parallel for analysis, feedback and thumbnails. These include notes on the pace and structure of a draft, as well as personalised thumbnail generation and testing of different variants.
This is more than a single AI effect: YouTube is trying to bring research, editing, packaging and evaluation closer together within Studio and Create.
Live, posts and shopping are also being expanded
Made on YouTube 2026 also includes new live and community features. Planned are, among others, Live Showdowns for co-streams, live auto-dubbing and a further expansion of Watch With. We had already classified this format separately: YouTube opens Watch With to more creators.
Posts are also becoming more visible. According to YouTube, on average more than 300 million users interact with posts each day. In future, posts are meant to be recommended more strongly in the Shorts environment and later also to be visible on TV devices.
In commerce, YouTube is further expanding shopping as well. The affiliate programme is supposed to be available in 35 countries by year-end, and product tags are to be localised more strongly. The topic is already live for Germany: YouTube Shopping has launched 2026 in Germany.
What changes for creators and brands
Taken together, the individual updates point in a clear direction: YouTube wants to keep discovery, production and monetisation more tightly within the same platform. Creators get more tools for serial formats and AI-supported production. Users get more influence over their recommendations. Brands simultaneously gain additional touchpoints around creator partnerships, shopping and TV use.
In practice this means formats should not be thought of only as individual uploads. Series logic, clearly recognisable topic clusters and content that works both on mobile and on TV will continue to gain importance.