It’s still only the beginning of 2024 and we’ve already had quite a few weird news stories come across our desks.
While many have to do with all the odd (often exciting, often terrifying) ways in which generative AI can attempt to replicate human artistry with videos, speech, and 3D models, this latest news from YouTube might be the weirdest yet.
According to reports from 9to5Google, select mobile users of the YouTube app are being offered the opportunity to create a video feed based off of a color selection. Let’s take a look at what this is, how it appears to work, and what it could mean for the future of YouTube content creation.
YouTube Color Selection Feeds
Now, we don’t have a lot of details yet, but we do have reports from several users online sharing screenshots of a new prompt window that they’re getting when they log into the YouTube app on their smartphones.
YouTube seemingly confirmed speculation in a quote with The Verge where they state that this new feature is currently available to “select users on Android and iOS mobile devices.”
This prompt asks users if they’re “craving something new,” and it gives them the option to create a video feed with red, blue, or green hues. You can see an example of what this looks like below.
YouTube Color Selection Feeds
Red, Blue, and Green Color Feeds
Once a user selects a color feature from the screen above, they are then directed to browse a new video feed (that doesn’t appear to replace your usual homepage feed, but simply provides an additional one). In this new feed, everything it includes features the color that you selected.
We can’t fully confirm if YouTube is scanning entire videos for prominent colors, or—more likely perhaps—it’s just scanning thumbnails to see which color is the most prominent for inclusion on these feeds. But that certainly appears to be how this thing works.
You can see an example of what a red color feed looks like below as the algorithm pulls obvious examples such as Marques Brownlee reviewing a red Tesla or Elmo being interviewed on CNN. Which, I guess makes sense, but it’s also still very odd.
Red, Blue, and Green Color Feeds
Should Content Creators Change Strategy?
The real question here for all of those who work in film and video and at least dabble in creating content for yourself or for brands to upload to YouTube is: will these new color feeds change any strategy?
It doesn’t look like this new color feed option is getting a full road out just yet. YouTube hasn’t confirmed anything more than it is a fun little experiment for now. However, if it were to be a hit, it could become a bigger feature in the future.
If it does, it certainly could mean that there should be some more focus by content creators on “color coding” their videos (or at least their thumbnails) to line up with the most popular color feed channels. For now, though, keep doing what you’re doing and enjoy this odd bit of news that hopefully won’t change too much too soon.
- Build a YouTube Studio for Less Than $100 ›
- How to Build an Audience for Your Film Using YouTube (the Right Way) ›
- Why You Need to Try MrBeast’s YouTube Analytics Platform ViewStats ›
- How to Make Money On YouTube (Monetization Guide) ›
- What are the 50+ Best Short Films of All Time on YouTube? ›
- How Influencers Structure Long-Form YouTube Content ›
