Creator Weekly: TikTok US Deal, YouTube's 2026 Priorities, Substack TV

I hope you are all staying warm this weekend! 

This week YouTube announced their priorities for 2026, TikTok has a deal that lets them stay in the US, and there are more updates for YouTube, Substack, Threads, X and more. 

Top news and updates this week

As is custom, YouTube CEO Neal Mohan published an overview of the platform’s plans for 2026. What’s YouTube’s vision? “When creators hold the keys to their own production and distribution, the only limit is their imagination.” and “For every idea a creator dreams up, we provide the business model to match.”

This isn't too different from their 2025 priorities, other than an additional emphasis on making YouTube safe for teens and kids.

There are four broad areas YouTube is focusing on: 

By the numbers

Coming soon

Right at the deadline, TikTok confirmed the establishment of TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC for U.S. users. 

Does this meet the requirement of the law? Apparently that requires the end of any “operational relationship” between ByteDance and TikTok in the U.S., but that isn’t how the current deal is structured.

What this means in practical terms for U.S. users is still becoming clear. 

U.S. users have to agree to an updated Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. While there are concerns, the new terms aren’t hugely different (some of the current concerns are because the new terms are under more scrutiny than the previous version). 

Notable changes include: 

There have been understandable concerns about other demographic and personal data being collected, but (as in the previous version of the terms) this only applies to content you disclose in your content or in survey responses. Of course how this is used may be different under the new ownership.

There have not been any changes to the Community Guidelines.

And what about the retrained algorithm? It may mean that U.S. users see different trends than the rest of the world.  President Trump wants the content to be “100% MAGA”. Could that happen? There are concerns that with the company under the control of his allies, conservative content will be favored.

Also notable is that “Seller Shipping” will be discontinued for U.S. merchants and brands. Merchants will have to fulfill sales on the platform using TikTok’s logistics, rather than handling their own shipping, and this change is apparently a “logistical nightmare”. TikTok Shop sales make up a substantial portion of the platform’s revenue.

So what do users have to do? 

If you are in the U.S., the next time you sign in to the TikTok app or TikTok on the web, you’ll be prompted to accept the new terms and privacy policy. You don’t need a new version of the app.

Everything appears to be the same at the moment. But that may change. 

Substack launched a TV app (beta) for Apple TV and Google TV. No, you can’t read newsletters on the big screen. 

This is for “video posts and livestream from the creators and publications you’re subscribed to”. Substack says that in future updates it will support audio posts, search and improved discovery, and previews of paid content for free subscribers.

 YouTube, of course, is all-in on TV viewing, and Instagram launched a TV app for Reels viewing last month.

Google Vids, Google’s Workspace-integrated video editor, now lets you add styled, animated captions that are synced with the video. It’s currently available in 30 languages. 

Vertical videos for TikTok, Reels and Shorts often have animated captions, and it helps get your message to people who scroll with the sound off, have hearing issues, or just capture attention.

This is available for Google Workspace accounts, and personal Google Accounts with a Workspace Individual or AI Pro/Ultra subscription. (A more limited version may be available for free personal accounts.)

In the YouTube mobile app, the entry points for the channel video list are being consolidated. All video management will be on the channel page. That means that if you start on the “You” screen, and tap “Your videos” it will open the video tab on your channel. Tap the 3 dot icon on a video or Short for options like editing a Short thumbnail.

In the YouTube Studio app and main YouTube mobile app, the video settings list has been simplified, with most of the options hidden under a “Show More” button. YouTube says this is to “make managing content more intuitive, lightweight, and accessible.”

Twitch is updating Custom Discount Promotions for Partners and Affiliates. This lets monetized streamers run their own promotions. Twitch is adding more allowed promotional time and promo tokens, a “Start a Promo” quick action button and will be reducing restrictions around starting your own promotion before a Twitch-wide promotional event. 

Vimeo now offers integration with Google Meet. This lets you connect your Vimeo account with your Google Account for Meet (which has cloud recording enabled). Recordings are imported automatically into Vimeo, where you can use their editing platform. Also new this month are 4K screen recordings and more video layouts in the editor. Vimeo was acquired by Bending Spoons and 2025, and most of their staff (including the engineering team) was laid off this week.

StreamYard added new professional visual filters and controls to fine tune your webcam output (brightness, contrast, saturation and so forth). Any changes are applied immediately without interrupting your stream.

You can now enable monetization on your YouTube livestream inside Restream Studio.

Adobe released new versions of Premiere (“new AI-powered tools and workflow improvements make it easier to isolate subjects, refine edits, and stay focused on the story rather than the mechanics of editing”) and After Effects (“new creative possibilities for motion and compositing, with expanded animation, 3D, and performance enhancements that let artists spend less time waiting for rendering and more time designing”).  Learn about all the updates.

Meta is rolling out ads on Threads globally, touting the platform’s “400 million monthly active users”. There have been ads for U.S. users for some time, and they aren’t particularly intrusive.

X launched “Starterpacks” (yes, all one word). These are recommended people to follow, grouped by topic. X Head of Product Nikita Bier says they “scoured the world for the top posters in every niche & country” to put them together. But X misses part of the power of Starter Packs on Bluesky, that anyone can create one (they can be delightfully specific). Social Media Today’s Andrew Hutchinson suggests this feature could be totally relevant for some niches, “Like conspiracy theorists, or morons, or both.” LOL. 

Canadian social media management company Hootsuite has a pilot project deal with the US Department of Homeland Security. According to reports, they have set up social listening services, which ICE can use to monitor online conversations about the agency. A 2020 contract with ICE was cancelled after Hootsuite employee backlash.

Meme yourself in Google Photos. The new “Me Meme” feature in Google Photos (in the U.S.) lets you combine your own photo with a template using generative AI. 

If you are still using Paint for Windows, Microsoft is adding two new features: use AI to generate coloring book pages from a text prompt, and a new Fill tolerance slider (to adjust levels).

As I covered last week, Personal Intelligence in Gemini lets you connect your Google services (like Gmail, YouTube history, Search history, Photos). Personal Intelligence is now also available in Google Search AI Mode. Google says this is especially useful for queries about shopping or planning travel.

404 Media reports, “Comic-Con Bans AI Art After Artist Pushback”. Last year AI art was allowed in the art show, as long as it was labeled as such, and was not for sale. It even allowed AI art “in the style of” an artist, meaning that it could compete with the original artist’s work.

Adobe launched Firefly Foundry, commercially safe AI models. This is a business tool for creating "proprietary, IP-protected generative AI models - responsibly trained on your brand or franchise".

Thanks for reading! 🌼