YouTube allows creators to use multiple thumbnails with video: How it works

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Google’s video streaming platform YouTube is rolling out a new feature, which allows creators to publish videos on the platform with multiple thumbnails. Called “Thumbnail Test and Compare”, the feature enables access to advanced features where creators can test various thumbnails and compare the video performance in a couple of weeks’ time from the day of publishing. Announced last year in June, YouTube’s thumbnail test and compare feature is now rolling out widely to all creators on the video streaming platform.

How to access

If the user has access to advanced features, “Test & Compare” option will be seen for the thumbnails in YouTube Studio on desktop when publishing the video or updating it.

If the user does not have access to advanced features, it will have to be checked if the account qualifies for advanced features by going to "Feature eligibility" in channel settings in Studio. If you see "Enabled" next to the advanced features icon, you can start using the new feature.

How it works

With the feature, creators can upload a maximum of three video thumbnails to assess which will be more popular among the audience. YouTube will display all three thumbnails evenly to the viewers and then inform the creator which one generated the most watch timeshare.

It will take up to two weeks to receive final results and the amount of time is also affected by multiple factors like impressions on the videos and variety among thumbnails. During the test it will show as "Running status" and sometimes even after two weeks you might not get a clear winner in the result.

Through the data driven results, the user will see the thumbnail with the most watch time share labelled as winner and YouTube will automatically update the video thumbnail. YouTube will also show you a preferred label for what it described as "thumbnail likely outperformed other thumbnails based on watch time share, but we’re less sure that viewers prefer this thumbnail compared to one that got a “Winner” result." Users can still manually select the thumbnail irrespective of the results.

The feature is available only for YouTube Studio on desktop and YouTube is exploring possibilities of use of this feature for mobile as well.