WHAT ARE THE YOUTUBE CHANGES IN 2025

YouTube turned 20 back in February and the transformation has been a big one. From its beginnings as a simple video sharing platform it’s become a thriving hub for creators to share their videos, podcasts and livestreams, all with a greater level of interactivity.

Here, we look at the changes to YouTube in 2025.

 

AI Integration

Last year, AI integration with YouTube’s Dream Screen and Dream Track brought new image, video and instrumental music backgrounds for Shorts.

2025 sees an update to its video generation tech with Veo 2, which will be integrated into Dream Screen, offering more realistic video creation through a better understanding and integration of complex cinematography manoeuvres.

Improvements are also underway to assist with the ideation process for video concepts, titles and thumbnails within the Inspiration tab in YouTube Creator Studio.

Through the YouTube Partner Program, creators will be able to access YouTube’s auto-dubbing feature in a greater number of languages in 2025, enabling them to reach even bigger, international audiences.

YouTube is also innovating with tools that recognise and control when a user’s likeness is used. It’s a pilot program that will be made available to prominent figures first to safeguard their identity and how it's used.

 

Smarter Ad placement

If you let YouTube choose where ads are placed in your content (without doing it manually yourself), they’ve said, as of May 2025, they’ll be offering more natural placement for mid-roll ads.

The aim of these YouTube ad changes is to reduce the disruptive nature of the ad, where it might increase the likelihood of a viewer abandoning their viewing of the video altogether. Natural pauses, rather than mid-sentence interruptions, are the goal.

 

How fans support creators - communities and hype

Communities is a feature that popped up late last year and is expected to expand in 2025. It’s a place where subscribers can start conversations, communicate with each other and with the creator whose they subscribe to. A place for actual fans of a channel to interact beyond individual videos or posts and engage more deeply with those who love the same content.

In addition, there’s the option to “hype” content. This allows users to do something a little extra than just liking and sharing. Hyping helps content move up in the rankings of “hyped videos” in a weekly top 100 leaderboard.

The conditions are: you can hype no more than 3 times a week, the video has to be less than 7 days old, and it has to be created by someone with less than 50K subscribers. This is a real help to new creators, because bonus points are added to a hype when it's applied to creator content with fewer subscribers.

The new element on its way at some point in the future: extra paid-for hypes.

 

Promises made to podcasters

While there are tantalisingly few details on exactly what new tools will be added to a youtube podcaster’s arsenal, YouTube promises to “roll out more tools for podcasters” and “make it even easier to discover podcasts.”

What’s clear: YouTube is on a serious mission to promote itself as a podcasting platform. In fact YouTube is now the preferred platform for listening to podcasts in the U.S.

 

Algorithm changes

YouTube's recommendation algorithm has evolved and it’s created new opportunities for up-and-coming creators. When viewers engage with content in specific niches, the algorithm will start suggesting videos from lesser-known creators within those same categories.

The desire for and so the importance of fresh content is a major driver behind this YouTube algorithm change. YouTube has recognised that the big engagement content from major channels will not be enough to keep viewers satisfied, and more, newer, less discovered content is required to pique our interest and keep us coming back

This algorithm change is creating unprecedented opportunities for emerging creators, whose content might otherwise have been deprioritised in favour of content from major players in their niche.

 

How creators are changing their approach in 2025

Creators are taking control of their content and Youtube’s new changes and opportunities available in 2025 in a variety of ways:

• They’re using AI to optimize their thumbnails and titles to drive curiosity in their content. Sparking engagement can pay off in more ways now, with the arrival of “hype”.
• They’re exploring YouTube’s AI for video idea generation, execution and editing
• They’re further honing their niche and creating content series (several videos dedicated to facets of the same topic) in a bid to keep YouTube’s algorithm directing their content to users, once a video has been discovered. That way, the algorithm can continually serve up content it knows to be relevant to an already identified audience.
• They’re exploring how their channel might adapt to a YouTube podcast
• They’re rewarding an engaged follower base with a greater level of engaging within Communities

 

Explore new music for your YouTube content in 2025

If you’re creating content on YouTube and need access to the latest high quality tracks, stems and sound effects, check out the Universal Music for Creators library for thousands of tracks you can use safely across your content.