Made On YouTube 2026 Recap: Video A/B Testing & More
See the biggest Made On YouTube 2026 announcements: video A/B testing, Shorts series, dynamic thumbnails, likeness detection, and when each feature rolls out.
YouTube just dropped over 30 announcements during their Made on YouTube 2026 event that aims to make the viewing and content creation experience a lot easier.
There are a lot of new tools that are either rolling out today, toward the end of the year, or next year, but we'll give you the highlights of what you should keep a close eye on.
Video A/B Testing will be a Game Changer
YouTube is launching A/B testing for videos for select creators with the intent to expand globally next year.
This allow creators to upload up to 3 different versions of your video and let A/B testing tell you which performs best.
When YouTube first launched A/B test for thumbnails and titles, a lot of creators complained that the winner was based on watch time share instead of CTR. Though with video A/B test, it makes more sense if it's based on watch time.
From YouTube's example, you can upload videos with different length. The winner will be selected based on watch time share, but the great part is that you can click on "See More" to go into Advanced mode to see how each video perform.
Jenny Hoyos, during her presentation at Created in LA, said she would often upload the same video but with different hooks on Instagram Reels to test which one performs better before she releases the best version onto other social media. She believes that trial reels are underrated. And perhaps YouTube does too.
YouTube video A/B testing is a great way to test multiple hooks on the same video. It'll provide the data you need to know what hook performs better and what you should do from then on.
Ike
Microdramas are Getting a Boost with Shorts Series
It's a long time coming. YouTube expanded Shorts from 30 seconds to 1 minute, then to 3 minutes. When that happened, we knew this was a start of bite-sized shows (or microdramas).
Then came Series, a special type of playlist that allows you to set your videos in episodic or non-episodic, in seasons, and set custom thumbnails and banner.
It was only available for long-form, but starting today (September 23rd, 2026), Shorts series is rolling out to creators across web, mobile, and TV.
According to YouTube, microdramas on YouTube surpassed 6.5 billion views in the first half of 2026 with watch time growing over 50% year after year. Microdramas are a mobile-first format, views of these content on TV increased over 90%.
It makes sense why YouTube is rolling out Shorts series.
Long-form Feedback and Dynamic Thumbnails
YouTube recently released their AI feedback for YouTube Shorts, giving Shorts creator a way to get advice on their video before they publish. We wondered whether YouTube would bring this onto long-form or not, and it seems we've got our answer.
Ike
Feedback on drafts and Dynamic Thumbnails is rolling out globally throughout the rest of the year.
If you get access to these features, what you'll need to do is upload a video as a draft. Then head over to the draft's video edit page to find the Feedback. The AI will go through your video and give you a detailed feedback with timestamps.
You can then choose to Ask for more information, take the feedback and rework your video... or don't take the feedback if you trust your instincts.
Another thing that you'll be able to do is get Ask Studio to generate thumbnails that matches your channel's previous thumbnails. We recommend you treat it as draft thumbnails and create your own instead since you'll have more creative freedom on the details.
If you have 2 or 3 thumbnails that you know will perform well without needing to A/B test, you can choose to set them as Dynamic thumbnails. YouTube will then recommend the best of the 2/3 options to different segments of your audience.
This way, you can have multiple thumbnails running on the same video that'll only end when you choose to.
React Live Expands to all (Eligible) YouTube Videos
This is another YouTube experiment that's been running through small groups of creators (let's be honest, they're the bigger creators).
It started with creators being able to react live to major broadcasts and other creator's livestream, but now YouTube is expanding it to all eligible long-form videos across YouTube.
YouTube says in August 2026, on average, more than 600M logged-in viewers watched live content (including archive) each day.
This feature will roll out later this year.
"Reacting creators keep their live ad revenue and fan funding they've earned, while original creators get clear attribution, added view credit in YouTube Studio, and full control over which of their videos can be reacted to."
- Made On YouTube 2026
It's been an ongoing issue on YouTube with big creators reacting to small creator's videos and gaining more views off of it. This can help, but only if the creators follow (and know of) the system. We'll see how this goes.
Likeness Detection Expands to Mobile and Voice Recognition
YouTube's Likeness Detection is coming to mobile to help making setup and taking action easier for creators even when they're not at home.
This will be available on mobile in the coming weeks.
What's rolling out by the end of the year is the addition of voice recognition. By adding in your voice, it improves YouTube's overall match accuracy to help better safeguard your likeness. It also lay the groundwork for broader voice protections over time.
However, in order to use this feature, you will need to give your face and voice to YouTube. YouTube's AI might get things wrong, so you'll always need to double check whether the video has used your likeness or not before taking action.
Small, but great updates
- Coming soon: Viewers will be able to see Posts on TV, such as photo drops and teasers.
- Posts in Shorts Feed are now live globally.
- Auto Dubbing for YouTube live is rolling out in 2027, starting as a small pilot with English and Spanish.
- YouTube Shopping is expanding to 35 markets by the end of the year.
- Amazon partnership expands to India and Brazil before the end of the year.
- Bulk add brand segments across up to 20 videos and easy switch them out when a deal ends.
There are so many more features YouTube dropped in Made On YouTube 2026. Click on the button below to see all of them.
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