YouTube tests 'Hype' feature with small creators: What is it, how it works

The Hype feature currently beings tested by YouTube is mainly aimed to help small creators to be discovered by new viewers and help them receive support from the community

Google’s video streaming platform YouTube is testing a new "Hype" feature in select countries. It essentially allows viewers to increase the possibility of a video appearing in the rankings with other hyped videos that week. YouTube has titled the announcement about the testing of the feature as “New way for viewers to support their favourite creators.”

YouTube has noted on its support page that Hype is similar to the Like and Share function that it already has. The official announcement also states that Hypes are not used as an indicator for YouTube’s reach and discovery system.

The feature is mainly aimed to help small creators to be discovered by new viewers and help them receive support from the community. The testing of the feature is allowed for only a subset of YouTube Partner Program content creators who follow the community guidelines and have less than 500,000 subscribers.

Hyped videos are displayed in the “Explore” section and not the trending section. Moreover, viewers can only hype videos published in the last seven days.

The new feature is being experimented in Brazil, Taiwan and Turkey and it is unclear whether it is a paid feature. YouTube has said that it will collect feedback and learn if and how the feature will be expanded to other people in upcoming days.

Previously, YouTube had announced that it is experimenting with a feature that will let users add context to videos in the form of notes. This will help provide relevant information to others for clarification. This arrives in addition to other context prioritising features that YouTube has introduced recently such as information panels and additional requirements for disclosing synthetic or altered content.