Creator Weekly: YouTube DMs, Facebook Content Protection, Google Vids AI Tools

Happy weekend dear readers! This week there are updates from YouTube, Google Vids, TikTok, Facebook, Bluesky and Google Search Console. Plus Google Gemini 3 and Nano Banana Pro are out, there are updated productivity tools and more. 

Top news and updates this week

🗓 Ten Years Ago This Week: YouTube Music App 

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

In November 2015 the new YouTube Music app launched, creating a new home for music -- not just songs, but music videos, concert footage and covers. With a YouTube Red subscription you could listen ad free.  Since then YouTube Music has become the place for audio listening, with podcasts added to the platform. 

What sets YouTube Music apart is that it’s connected to YouTube, with all the music content there, plus features for Creators making it easy to remix songs or publish podcasts. Get all the details.

The latest update in the music streaming wars: Spotify now lets you import playlists from other services, including YouTube Music, Apple Music, SoundCloud, and more.

Creators with access to the Facebook Professional Dashboard can enroll in Facebook Content Protection to be notified of new Reels that fully or partially match their content. Creators can then choose to track those Reels, request they be blocked, or release the claims. There is also an “allow list” option to allow specific accounts to use your content without being flagged.

There is an advantage to making sure original content is uploaded to Facebook first. But if a copier tries to claim your content through their account, there is a dispute process. Creators can also submit a copyright takedown outside of the Content Protection tools.

Access is available to creators in the Facebook Content Monetization program.

Google Vids, the Google Workspace-integrated video editor, is expanding access to a select Gemini features to everyone with a Gmail account. Previously these required a paid subscription. There’s a Vids on Vids playlist to get you started. Features include: 

Google Workspace accounts and users with Google AI Pro or Ultra subscriptions have access to additional features like video clip generation. 

Just announced this week: Google Vids now lets you use Veo 3.1 to create an 8 second video clip by prompting with up to 3 images. “This new capability generates clips with consistent subjects, characters, and objects to help you tell a strong, cohesive story.” 

Veo 3.1 in Google Vids is available to Google Workspace Business, Enterprise, Nonprofits and Essentials accounts, and accounts with a Google AI Pro or Ultra subscription.

Google released Nana Banana Pro (Gemini 3 Pro Image) their latest image generation and editing model. Improvements include:

Where can you use it? 

“Workspace customers get promotional access to higher usage limits of Nano Banana Pro in these apps for at least 60 days”

Images generated by Nano Banana Pro in the Gemini app, Vertex AI and Google Ads will have C2PA metadata embedded (which indicates how it was created).

To get started, see Google’s tips for prompting.

Also new this week: 

YouTube is testing a DM feature "to share videos you love (long-form, Shorts and live streams) and have conversations about them directly on the YouTube mobile app". 

This is rolling out in Ireland and Poland to 18+ accounts. In-app private sharing is currently on trend (see also Instagram and Spotify). Learn more.

YouTube has had several different private messaging platforms over the years, including Inbox (2008-2014),  Google+-based Messages (2014-2018), and Direct Messaging with Friends (2017-2019).

Google Scholar is a database of academic research articles and case law, with links to the original documents (which may or may not be available to you for free). You can save articles to read later in your own library 

It’s getting some new love with the experimental Scholar Labs AI Search:
It analyzes your question to identify its key topics, aspects and relationships. It then searches for all of them on Scholar, and evaluates the results to identify papers that answer the overall research question. For each paper, it explains how the paper answers your question.

They also just updated the Scholar PDF Reader extension to let you highlight text and jot down notes (which appear in your Scholar library).

If you sell products with YouTube Shopping there are now improved timestamps on mobile videos (not Shorts). Instead of obscuring part of the video, there is now a dedicated product shelf that stays open between product timestamps.  Learn more.

YouTube is expanding access to AI-powered comment reply suggestions.These are editable suggestions in your own tone and style. If you comment in multiple languages you may see reply suggestions in multiple languages. This is expanding to more creators on YouTube Studio mobile and web, and the YouTube mobile app.  More information about comment settings.

Creator Insider interviews YouTube’s Director of BrandConnect, Data and Creator Payments to get the scoop on dynamic brand segments, the future of BrandConnect, external links on shorts for brand deals and AI-powered recommendations for creator actions. Watch the interview.

There’s also an interview with YouTuber Lana Rae and YouTube’s product manager for live Barbara MacDonald about new and upcoming live streaming features. Watch the discussion.

Twitch is updating how it counts Clip views. View counts have been inflated due to a “technical issue”. Twitch says, “While clip views may initially appear lower, you'll now have cleaner and more consistent cross-platform clips data…”

TikTok is testing new controls that let you choose how much AI-generated content you see in your For YouFeed. It is under the Manage Topic settings, that already let you select how much of various topics (like Dance or Sports) you see.

TikTok is also adding invisible (and non-removeable) watermarks to content generated with generative AI with TikTok tools like AI Editor Pro or uploaded with C2PA Content Credentials. 

TikTok shared details about how it protects its community from hate and violent extremism. They are partnering with the Violence Protection Network to help people “think more critically about the content they see”, starting in Germany. They are working with the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism.

TikTok is adding Well-being Missions, designed to encourage people to learn “balanced digital habits”.

Amazon Music has a new “Share to TikTok” feature, letting people share their favorite tracks on TikTok.

Lindsey Gamble on the Netflix deal with Spotify for video podcasts: Why Netflix Wants Your Favorite Video Podcasts (And Why Creators Should Care) 

You can now add Custom Annotations to Google Search Console performance reports.  Annotations have a date and short note (like SEO changes made, content updated, or events). Note that annotations are visible to everyone with access to your Search console property.

Google is removing the “Follow” website feature in Chrome. This feature launched in 2021.

Adobe will acquire SEO platform Semrush (as long as they get regulatory approval).

AdSense notes that a number of US states are updating their data privacy laws. On November 17th Google started processing opt-out preferences for ad viewers from Delaware and Oregon, using Restricted Data Processing Mode for those ad requests. And on January 1 new laws in Indiana, Kentucky and Rhode Island go into effect. Google suggests activating “Restricted Data Processing mode to disable ad personalization “may assist publishers in honoring opt-outs for targeted advertising…” (but “work with your legal team”, which is not a helpful suggestion.)

Bluesky has updated their moderation process as part of their “building healthier social media” commitment. Their policies have not changed. When reporting a post, they have expanded the reporting reasons from 6 to a more granular 39. Violations are given a severity level, and as violations accumulate accounts may go from a temporary suspension to a permanent ban. Violation notifications will now include more details as well.

Bluesky also redesigned the “who can reply” interface for posts to make them easier to use. Save your settings as the default for future posts.

Eugen Rochko, CEO of Mastodon, is stepping down, and will transfer ownership of the trademark and other assets to the Mastodon non-profit. The organization will be led by its Board of Directors.

Snapchat is launching public Topic Chats. The chats “cluster Snaps about that topic to make it easy to explore what’s happening visually” and will show if any of your friends are already there. This is rolling out in Canada, New Zealand and the US.

Women on LinkedIn found that switching their profile details to male meant their posts got significantly higher impressions. LinkedIn says it’s not their algorithms, but maybe other factors. I think it’s more likely sexism in the user base that means posts from men get (on average) more engagement. Follow the #wearthepants hashtag for discussion.

X updated their DMs, giving all users access to end-to-end encrypted chats, editing, disappearing DMs and other features previously only available to Premium Subscribers.

X is also rolling out detailed “about this account” information for profiles, including join date, where the account is based, how many times the name has changed and other details.

This is useful: You can now block off time in Google Calendar to work on a Task (rather than having to create an event).

If you change the recurrence or start time of a recurring event in Google Calendar, the remaining Events will get a new Meet link. Encourage video event participants to click the link in the Calendar event or on the Meet home page (which has links to Calendar event meetings), rather than saving a bookmark.

Windows Notepad now supports tables. It also has improved Copilot AI Write, Rewrite, and Summarize features.

If you use the Firefox browser, check out the improved tab groups.

This is helpful, from TechCrunch: The best guide to spotting AI writing comes from Wikipedia 

Google Gemini app can determine if images were generated or edited with Google AI. It detects the SynthID digital watermark. This will eventually also be able to detect C2PA content credentials.

Meta released new “Segment Anything” models SAM 3 and SAM 3D. This isolates and tracks objects in photos and videos and can create a 3D model which lets objects be realistically moved around. This will soon be coming to the Meta AI app and Meta’s Vibes video feed. You can play with the models on the Segment Anything Playground.

John Nack wrote up an interview with Canva co-founder and CPO Cameron Adams: AI, outcomes, and closing loops: How Canva thinks 

Windows: “Windows Insiders can now use Copilot Actions to perform tasks directly on local files in Windows in an Agent Workspace, a contained, policy-controlled, and auditable environment”. 

Business Insider: The Godfather of Meta's AI Thinks the AI Boom Is a Dead End 

PC Mag: Microsoft Exec Asks: Why Aren't More People Impressed With AI? 

Flickr introduced Data Lifeboat, a new archiving tool that lets you “safely and ethically preserve a selection of Flickr photos with their technical metadata (like the stuff in EXIF) and “social metadata” (like comments, faves, location, tags [etc]”. It’s not just your photos that you can include, it’s anyone’s photos (with consent). You can download the archive and do what you like with it. The archive is a self-contained website, and you can include information on why it was created. While it isn’t free, it is cheap. It costs $5.00 to create a Data Lifeboat for up to 500 photos, and a small per-photo fee above that. See some examples.

If you have an Android device, the new Google Play Collections is a “personal hub for content from your currently installed apps.” It will show content like movies or audiobooks “in progress”, see new releases, and make it easier to find your apps and content.

Thanks for reading! 🌼