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Creator Weekly: YouTube Auto-Dubbing, Twitch Storage, Creator Contracts

Creator Weekly: YouTube Auto-Dubbing, Twitch Storage, Creator Contracts

Peggy K
April 19, 2025

This week I’m celebrating rebirth and renewal with Easter on Sunday and Earth Day on Tuesday. If you celebrate I hope you have a joyous holiday.

What’s new? YouTube rolled out automatic dubbing to more channels, Twitch gave creators more time to save their Highlights, Patreon launched live streaming, Medium explained the importance of a diversity for their platform, and lots more.

Top news and updates this week

All YouTube Partner Program channels can enable automatic dubbing between English and 8 other languages.
The Creators Guild of America offers a contract rider to protect the legal and creative rights of content creators.
YouTube is gamifying Gifting with Gift Combos.
YouTube will age-restrict some violent scripted content.
Patreon launched live streaming for creators.
Twitch postpones enforcement of its new 100 hour Highlights limit.
TikTok is testing Footnotes, its version of Community Notes.
CapCut Commerce Pro is now Pippit, with AI tools for marketers and creators.
Instagram launched Blends, a shared Reels feed for you and friends.
Medium CEO Tony Stubblebine explained the power of diversity for the storytelling platform.
WordPress 6.8 Cecil was released with editor and security improvements.
Beehiiv lets you turn your newsletter into a podcast.
Google Search will no longer use country-specific top level domains.
Flickr is limited large image downloads on free accounts.
Tumblr Android app requires opt-in to see mature content.
Bluesky will hide abusive lists and starter packs in the app.
Graze, a platform for creating Bluesky feeds, now offers monetization with ads.
Google Sheets has a new =AI function to call on Gemini.
Google’s Veo 2 video generation model is available in Gemini and Whisk.
Meta is now using public data from European users for AI training.
X’s Grok can now remember conversations and summarize input files (including from Google Drive).
Plus reading about a weird new phrase in science papers, trying to understand dolphin language, the death of 4chan, and more.

Ten Years Ago This Week: Helpouts shut down

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

Ten years ago Google shut down Helpouts, its platform that allowed experts to offer live video training and assistance for health, photography, cooking and more. Did YouTube help kill it by offering so much information for free? Maybe. Read this week’s overview.

To Do & Try

US college students can get Google One AI Premium for free through June 1, 2026. It includes Gemini Advanced, NotebookLM Plus, Gemini in Google Docs, Sheets, Slides and other premium Workspace features (including Meet recording and YouTube live streaming), plus 2TB storage. Sign up with a personal Google account (verified by your university email) before June 1, 2025.

Sign up for YouTube User Research. They are currently looking for live streamers, podcasters, shorts creators and shopping affiliate program members. Learn more. Sign up here.

YouTube shared tips for transitioning long-form content into Shorts. Give it a try!

On April 24 Meta is running a free Reels webinar for businesses. I’m not sure how informative it will be for regular creators, but it could have useful information if you are running a promotional campaign.

YouTube Expands Automatic Dubbing

This week YouTube rolled out automatic dubbing to all channels in the YouTube Partner Program.

This will dub videos in English into French (France), German (Germany), Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese (Brazilian), and Spanish (US), or dub videos in any of those languages into English. It doesn’t dub between other languages, so a video in Japanese won’t be dubbed into Spanish.

Hindi, Indonesian and Japanese just graduated from being “experimental” languages, which means those dubs will be automatically published if you have that enabled.

There are some limitations:

Only new uploads after enabling dubbing may be dubbed.
Live stream archives aren’t dubbed (best I can tell)
Videos 1 hour or longer won’t be dubbed.
The dubs “will not convey the tone and emotion of the original”.
It may not work well translating proper nouns, idioms and jargon.

You can set up dubbing in YouTube Studio on desktop under Settings > Upload Defaults > Advanced. Click the “Languages” tab on the left menu to see dubbing details and review dubs.

Viewers can switch the dubbed language by clicking the gear icon on regular videos or the 3 dot menu icon on Shorts, then selecting the option to change the audio track.

Check out two of my Shorts with dubbing to see what you think: Is it time for a new FriendFeed? And Helpouts Shutdown: Did YouTube Kill It? It’s interesting to say the least (I don’t speak the languages to know how accurate they are).

Creators Guild Ensures Contracts Protect Creators

The Creators Guild of America now offers a contract rider for members with terms to ensure that digital content creators:

1. Get paid on time
2. Own your content
3. Control your name, image, and likeness, with limits on how it can be used with AI.
4. Get credit for work
5. Access Brand analytics
6. Essential legal protections around termination rights and dispute resolution.

Joining the CGA requires a minimum number of followers, viewers or other creator activities.

What do brands think? Some organizations in the creator economy like Linktree and the Whalar Group have confirmed they will include the rider in their contracts.

Video Creator and Live Streaming Updates

YouTube is gamifying Gifting with Gift Combos. Gifts are a way to monetize vertical live stream videos with US viewers. When someone gives a Gift (paid for with “Jewels” which are purchased with real money), they will see a Combo button to encourage more gifting. Everyone viewing sees the Combo count. YouTube says this helps build community and increase engagement. Plus there are special Easter Gifts for some bunny-egg fun.

YouTube will age-restrict scripted content with actors that focuses on scenes of torture or violent death showing blood starting May 1. This is meant to bring policy "in closer alignment with industry standards for mature content commonly found in TV and film." Read YouTube’s Violent or Graphic Content policies.

YouTube is expanding the Hype limited beta to more creators in Taiwan, Brazil and Turkey.

YouTube shared a Trends report on the rise of Virtual Creators, noting “behind every Virtual Creator lies a human element.”

Patreon is adding live streaming in early access (rolling out to more users in the summer). Features include:
• Mobile or desktop
• Live chat with emoji reactions
• Chat moderation tools
• Video downloads
• Support for OBS and Streamlabs for co-hosting

Patreon is also working on an updated homepage for creators with more customization options, collection shelves with organized content, and improved fan discovery. Interested creators can submit a form to show interest in being part of the test group. See the Chapo Trap House homepage as an example.

In February Twitch announced that they would limit storage of Highlights to 100 hours, with an April 19th deadline. They have now extended the deadline to May 19th, and say they have improved download speeds, exports and bulk selection. Videos can be exported directly to YouTube, which has its own upload limits. Learn more.

TikTok is testing Footnotes, its version of Community Notes. It uses a bridge-based ranking system like that used by X, Meta, and YouTube for their notes systems, which requires agreement between people who would usually disagree for the note to be published. US users at least 18 years old, with no recent Community Guidelines violations can apply to contribute. (I am skeptical of how useful notes are, when it seems everything is so polarized that few notes are likely to show).

CapCut Commerce Pro is now Pippit, also the name of their AI. It’s a “suite of creative e-commerce solutions for marketers and creators.” The Pippit “smart agent” can turn images and web pages into engaging marketing videos “instantly”.

Instagram launched Blends, which lets you create a Reels feed from any DM chat. It’s like a combined “For You” feed for everyone in the Blend.

Instagram has added new limitations to teen accounts. Users under age 16 cannot go live without parental permission.

Controversial live streaming platform Kick had its biggest month ever in March. They say they have 57 million users. They are working to support smaller streamers and say they are investing more in moderation.

Web Publishers and Search

Social blogging platform Medium CEO Tony Stubblebine explained how diversity helps the platform and their “Humans First” operating principle.
“As some companies dismantle their programs and walk back their commitments, we would like to state our stance clearly: Medium stands firm in our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.” “Yes, we try to create a space for people with diverse experiences and backgrounds to share their stories. And also yes, those stories make the lives of every single reader and writer here richer.” And “we see it as our competitive advantage and way we raise the bar for our business.”

WordPress 6.8 Cecil was released. New features include easier to use Style Book, editor improvements, faster loading pages, and better encrypted passwords.

Beehiiv has added the option to create a podcast from your newsletter. This has an RSS feed that can be submitted to all of the big podcast platforms like Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and even YouTube. Best I can tell it’s an automated voice reading the newsletter. The podcast part is the RSS feed ready to be submitted wherever you listen to podcasts. This feature requires a Max or Enterprise paid plan.

Google Search is going to stop using country-specific top level domains. Localized search results have been available on google.com since 2017. Now country TLDs will redirect to google.com. Google says this won’t change how Search works or country-level restrictions.

Google published their 2024 Ads Safety Report, highlighting their use of LLMs to prevent bad ads.

Stopped 5.1 billion “bad ads” from running and suspended 39.2 million advertiser accounts.
Permanently suspended 700,000 ads accounts for scams with AI-generated public figures.
Took action against 1.3 billion Publisher pages monetizing with AdSense, primarily for sexual content.

Flickr is limiting large image downloads on free accounts. Free accounts will no longer be able to download images larger than 1024p starting May 15. Why? Flickr says people were misusing free accounts as cloud storage for original files. Free accounts can still upload photos at any size. And Creative Commons images will still be downloadable any size.

20 year old platform Netvibes is shutting down its RSS reader/feed aggregator service on June 2. Netvibes was acquired by Dassault Systèmes, which runs the 3DEXPERIENCE platform. In the words of Reddit user DryBee1762 “now it's going away in favour of some new 3D AI buzzword driven slop”.

The Tumblr Android app will no longer show some content on your Dashboard, Communities or in Search unless you enable “show mature content” in the settings. This change was to comply with the Google Play Store Guidelines.

There’s a new Create on LinkedIn hub, with information about creator tools, tips for getting started, best practices and more. Check it out here.

Bluesky acknowledges that lists and starter packs are sometimes used as a harassment tool, so will now hide abusive lists and starter packs from other users in the Bluesky app. Abuse includes insulting profanity, slurs, abusive terms, or unproven allegations. Users can edit their lists to comply with policy and appeal.

It looks like next week Bluesky will launch an account verification system. It will include trusted verifier organizations, and you will be able to click the blue check to see how the account was verified. So, for example, the New York Times would be a trusted verifier for the newspaper’s reporters. More on this when it launches.

Graze, a platform that makes it easy to create Bluesky feeds, now allows creators to monetize the feeds with ads. Advertisers choose to advertise in the feed, so no personal user data is collected for ad targeting.

Business automation platform Make has removed X integration “due to X's API policy requirements and pricing that prevent us from providing a reasonable integration to our customers.”

Andrew Hutchinson @ Social Media Today: Zuckerberg Admits That Time Spent on Facebook and Instagram Has Declined. That’s just one bit of the information coming out of the Meta antitrust trial.

Communication and Collaboration

If you use Google Chat you have probably seen the notice that says there is a change to the way 1:1 messages are retained. Starting May 1st, whether the message history remains available depends on the policy for the account that started the conversation. If the person who started the conversation is using a work or school account, that person’s admin determines how long the messages are available. Those conversations can be exported using Google Takeout (takeout.google.com) until February 1, 2026.

Google Meet now lets you set your preferred language for “Take Notes for Me with Gemini”, Recording captions and Transcriptions. You need to be using an account where those features are available. See the link for details.

Google Sheets has a new =AI function. That calls Gemini to perform actions like categorize data, sentiment analysis or summarize the contents of another cell. Click the link for some examples. This is free for personal Google Accounts with Workspace Labs.

More AI Updates and Tips

Veo 2, Google’s latest text-to-video model, is now available in Gemini and Whisk. You can create an 8 second clip at 720p resolution. All generated videos are marked with a SynthID digital watermark.

Heads up Europeans, Meta is now using your public data for AI training (private messages are not used).

James Hale @ Tubefilter: OpenAI wants more training data. So it's building the next X (maybe).

X’s Grok AI chatbot can now remember your conversations and give personalized responses.

Grok Studio was released, letting you input files from different sources, including Google Drive. It can output documents, reports, code and browser games.

Apple will start analyzing user data on devices to improve its Apple Intelligence models using a differential privacy approach.