YouTube plans to create metaverse experiences, beginning with gaming

In an overview of its 2022 plans, YouTube said that it will start creating metaverse experiences on the video platform, beginning with gaming.

“We’ll work to bring more interactions to games and make them feel more alive,” Neal Mohan, YouTube’s chief product officer, said in a blog post. “It’s still early days, but we’re excited to see how we can turn these virtual worlds into a reality for viewers.”

Mohan also said that YouTube will add two new video effects and editing tools to Shorts, its TikTok rival. The new capabilities built on a feature YouTube introduced last year that lets users remix audio from video across YouTube. The company said Shorts have reached more than 5T all-time views. 

YouTube said that people watch over 700 million hours of YouTube content on TV daily, as of January 2022, marking TV its fastest growing screen in 2021. The company said, in order to ease the navigation for these viewers, it will be unveiling a new way to use their phones while they watch YouTube on their TV to read or leave comments, share videos with a friend, and more. 

Another area YouTube is trying to “improve” is comments. The company said it is testing out the ability for creators to set channel guidelines so they can better shape the tone of conversations on their channel. 

Viewers, on the other hand, will have the option to sort comments timed to the exact moment they’re watching in a video, giving valuable context to comments as they read them.