Creator Weekly: Beehiiv Creator OS, Patreon Discovery, Multi-Aspect Ratio Streaming

This week there are updates from Patreon, Beehiiv, Buffer, Facebook, YouTube and more. 

Top news and updates this week

🗓 Ten Years Ago This Week: TensorFlow brings machine learning to the masses

To celebrate 10 years of Creator Weekly, I’m sharing highlights from 2015. 

In November 2015 Google announced the release of TensorFlow, an open source machine learning platform. Google was already using it for voice recognition in the Google app, search in Google Photos, Smart Replies in Inbox by Gmail, and RankBrain Search ranking. Now anyone, from hobbyists to other companies, could use it too -- and they did! Get the full story.

Patreon is launching an improved discovery network in the home feed, built on user interests, rather than “attention”. You can join the waitlist to get access.

Beehiiv is positioning itself as “the operating system for the content economy”, and as a direct competitor to platforms like Substack.

Free accounts can access custom newsletters and websites, AI website designer, link-in-bio landing page, custom domains, recommendation network and unlimited email sends with up to 2,500 subscribers.

Social media post management platform Buffer has a new "Community" feature that lets you see and reply to comments on Instagram, Facebook, Threads, Bluesky, X and LinkedIn (with TikTok  available soon).  

Facebook will discontinue Facebook Like button and Comment button plugins on February 10, 2026. They will stop rendering and become invisible, and should not disrupt your website. However, you may want to remove the plugin code from your site before that date. 

Why? “The plugins that will be discontinued reflect an earlier era of web development, and their usage has naturally declined as the digital landscape has evolved.” 

Vine is coming back. Sort-of. The platform let users share up to 6 second long looping video clips. It was acquired by Twitter almost immediately after launch.

Now Twitter co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey is backing a new app, diVine, built on the decentralized Nostr protocol. The app includes more than 100,000 archived Vine videos, restored from a backup made by the non-affiliated Archive Team before Twitter killed Vine in early 2017. 

Users can upload their own 6 second videos. AI-generated content is prohibited, and the platform’s tagline is that it shows “Authentic moments. Human creativity”

Is the inclusion of original Vine videos fair use? Twitter-successor X still has the original Vine video archive, and Creators own the copyrights to their own content. diVine says there are options for Creators to either claim their old accounts or request them taken down, but the legality seems a bit dubious.

You can explore current videos on the web.

There are new Hype features on YouTube: Viewers can share their Hype as a public Post on their channel, and new category leaderboards (like beauty and gaming). 

There are two new filter chips on YouTube channel content tabs: Members-only and public for videos, live and Shorts. There is a drop-down menu to sort by Latest, Popular and Oldest. This is launching on mobile first, and soon will be available on desktop.

There are a lot of misconceptions and rumors that are going around about what happens when content on YouTube is removed, when channels are terminated for spam and what happens when you appeal. Read the official word: Top FAQs: YouTube Content Moderation & Appeals Importantly, YouTube will review only ONE appeal per channel termination. You have a full year to appeal, so don’t rush if you aren’t sure how to proceed.

YouTube is testing comment summaries in the YouTube Studio mobile app. If your channel is in the experiment, you will see a “Get summary” button on the Comments page for individual videos. This will soon be rolled out to all Creators.

AdWeek: The Future of Media Is Being Built on YouTube 

TikTok  launched Bulletin Board, a one-to-many broadcast channel, allowing Creators to share news, updates and very short posts with fans.

Twitch now requires UK users to verify their age to watch content with “certain Content Classification Labels (Sexual Themes; Drugs, Intoxication, or Excessive Tobacco Use; Violent and Graphic Depictions; or Gambling)  that may not be suitable for everyone.” They use a third-party vendor, k-ID, to complete the process. This is in compliance with the UK Online Safety Act. 

New Edits video editing app features: captions bulk editor, lip sync any photo with a face to a voice recording (iOS in the US), reverse video clips, and 400 new sound effects.

The Music and SoundFX library in Elgato Marketplace will be removed November 15th. If you have downloaded music or sound effects files, you may NOT use them in any new content published after November 15th, including videos, streams, and podcasts. Anything published on or before November 15th will continue to have a valid license. Elgato recommends using trusted royalty-free YouTube Audio Library or subscription services like Epidemic Sound.

StreamYard launched Multi-Aspect-Ratio Support (MARS) for simultaneous landscape and portrait streaming. For YouTube only, MARS lets you stream to the same account in both orientations at the same time. This requires a paid account. Learn more.

Restream now lets you stream vertical and horizontal at the same time. This is only available using the Restream plugin with OBS for Mac or Windows, not the web interface (boo!). It also does not appear to support YouTube Dual streaming.  Learn more.

TikTok is getting into podcasts. The new TikTok Podcast Network is 25 newly created TikTok Creator podcasts, launched in collaboration with iHeartMedia. iHeartMedia will distribute them via iHeartPodcasts. Also launched is the audio-only TikTok Radio.

Threads is testing nicely formatted podcast previews. You link your podcast in your profile, and then when you link to the show or episode in your post it adds a preview thumbnail and title that really stand out.

Spotify added AI-powered audiobook Recaps. Once you listen to 15-20 minutes of a book, you’ll be able to tap Recap to get a summary of what happened so far. Audiobooks are not used for AI training.

Google Search Central is celebrating the 100th episode of the Search Off the Record Podcast. The team is reminiscing about their favorite episodes and updates.

Megan Greenwell on private equity acquisitions: "I had thought that the point of buying a beloved, profitable publication was to make it more profitable, to strengthen the fundamentals of its business model in hopes of a lucrative exit years down the road." Nope! There was a time when there were tons of interesting and weird blogs by individuals and small groups of writers, maintained as a labor of love. There probably still are, but they are now almost impossible to find (or have moved to social media).

Google Ads has reduced false positive account suspensions by 80%, with the help of AI. Appeals are also addressed significantly faster.

The mobile Google App seems to be trying to compete with Pinterest. There is  a new “Images” icon at the bottom of the screen. Tap that to see images “tailored to your interests”. You can save images to your collections. This is available for Android or iOS in the US.

There are new AI features in Google Photos. You can make personalized edits, like removing someone’s sunglasses, or making someone smile (that seems kind of creepy, doesn’t it?). Photos uses images from your face groups to make accurate edits. There are also new “restyle” options, a “Create with AI” section with AI templates. And soon there will be personalized templates created with “insights from your photo gallery”. “Ask Photos” is now rolling out to more countries, and there is a dedicated new “Ask” button where you can ask questions about your content or describe edits. Check whether the new tools are available in your location.

The non-profit Flickr Foundation (it “exists to keep flickr pictures visible for 100 years”), has launched Data Lifeboat, an archiving tool to save Flickr photos. You sign in to Flickr, select photos (yours or others with the right permissions), and write a “README” to explain the selection. This creates a downloadable, browseable archive. See examples in the Data Lifeboat Showcase. Pricing starts at $5.00 for 500 photos. Learn more.

Facebook Marketplace is getting “more social and collaborative”.

LinkedIn has added AI-powered people search for Premium subscribers in the US. Rather than using keywords and filters, you can make a natural language search request.

Did you have your eye on an inactive X handle that you are willing to pay for? Be aware that you are required to regularly create original, engaging content; participate on the platform by replying, reposting and discussing topics; and sign in at least once a month or X could reclaim the handle. That’s on top of continuing to pay your X Premium subscription.

There is a new Google Voice Starter Plan for personal Google Accounts that offers advanced features, including 3-way calling, call recording, and desk phone compatibility. Google Voice gives you a phone number you can use over the internet in a browser or the Voice mobile app for calls, texts and voicemail. It includes unlimited calling and texting in the US and Canada. It does not include mobile or landline service. This is available in the US only. Compare features. This was previously only available for Workspace accounts.

You can now make your Gemini-powered “Take Notes for Me” notes in a Meet meeting longer. For complex discussions, that can help ensure it doesn’t meet the details.

Google Calendar is changing secondary calendar ownership. Secondary calendars are those you create or a group calendar shared with you. Now they will have a single, dedicated owner - usually the creator of the calendar. For existing secondary calendars this will be assigned automatically. Ownership can be transferred to another user in the same organization (for Workspace accounts). This affects both personal Google Accounts and Workspace accounts.

Gemini for Google Workspace can now create AI-powered Audio Overviews of PDFs in Google Drive. This is the conversational podcast-style overviews you can create with NotebookLM. (This sounds terrible to me, but I’d much rather quickly read a good summary than listen to people chatting about a summary.) Requires Google Workspace Business Standard or Plus, Enterprise Standard or Plus, or Google One AI Pro or Ultra.

NotebookLM is adding “Deep Research” that helps find information for you on the web. You can import both the Deep Research report and its sources to your notebook. NotebookLM also supports more file types including Google Sheets, Images of handwritten notes or a brochure, PDFs from Google Drive, Drive file URLs and Microsoft Word documents.

Mozilla Firefox will be adding an (optional) AI Window with AI assistant chat  to its browser. You can sign up to get updates and try it while it’s being developed.

Remix images shared in Google Messages (or from your Gallery) using Nano Banana. Everyone in the chat can see the new image and remix it themselves.

404 Media: OpenAI Can’t Fix Sora’s Copyright Infringement Problem Because It Was Built With Stolen Content 

If you use the Google Meet AI “Take Notes for Me” option, you can choose “Longer” notes “to help capture all the important details.” 

This feels like the future: Speaking Our Languages: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at Live Translation on Meta AI Glasses 

How the mighty have fallen: Bending Spoons will acquire AOL from Yahoo for $2.8 billion (in 1999 AOL was valued at $222 billion). The company has also acquired Vimeo, Meetup, Evernote, StreamYard and a number of other companies. 

STAT: James Watson, dead at 97, was a scientific legend and a pariah among his peers. He was 25 when he worked on the structure of DNA. He had a massive ego, despite the lack of major accomplishments beyond that. In later years he embraced “scientific” racism and sexism.

Thanks for reading! 🌼