YouTube Expands Voice Replies, Adds Quick Promote Option for Shorts

YouTube’s announced an expansion of audio replies to comments, while it’s also added a new option that will enable creators to promote their Shorts to a broader audience in the app.

First off, YouTube’s expanding access to audio replies for creators, which will enable channel managers to respond to comments under their videos with voice clips.

As explained by YouTube:

“If you're a Creator in the test group, you can navigate to one of your videos via the YouTube app and find a comment that you want to respond to. You can then tap the soundwave icon to record a voice reply and post it as a comment.”

Voice replies can be up to 30 seconds in length, providing just enough time to leave a more personal, present response to selected users.

YouTube initially began experimenting with voice replies with selected creators back in December, and it’s now expanding it to a broader range of creators on iOS.

And eventually, all users may be able to leave voice comments:

“While we gather feedback in the experiment phase, voice replies can only be left by creators on their own channel via main app on iOS, but all viewers and creators can engage with these comments.”

That suggests that it could be coming to viewers as well at some stage. Which seems potentially problematic, given YouTube’s history of toxic remarks from the peanut gallery, but it may add another way to engage and interact in the app, which could help creators build their communities.

YouTube says that voice replies are being rolled out to “a small number of creators” in the U.S. as part of this initial drive.

YouTube’s also adding a new way to expand the reach of your Shorts, with a new “Promote” option added to the Shorts tab in the YouTube Studio app.

As you can see in this example, now, if you want to maximize the reach of your Shorts clip, you’ll be able to pay to get more views, direct from the app.

“Promote provides creators with a quick and easy ad buying experience, directly in Studio, without having to navigate the complex campaign options in Google Ads. Promoted videos will be automatically shown to viewers who are more likely to engage with the promoted channel.”

So you won’t get the same depth of targeting that you normally do with YouTube ads, but it will provide a quick option to boost your Shorts to a wider audience.

Which could be good for those Shorts that are gaining organic attention, building on your promotional opportunities in the app, which could be the kickstart you need in your broader Shorts journey.

Both are interesting additions, in very different ways, and it’ll be interesting to see how YouTube looks to iterate on these functions moving forward.