If you stream on YouTube, the platform has made a handful of updates that directly improve how you earn and how your audience experiences key moments. These are part of a wider push from YouTube to make live streaming a more rewarding format for creators – one that gives you better tools to grow your community, protect your best moments, and earn more without compromising the viewing experience.
These new features point to YouTube treating live streaming as a serious revenue and growth channel, not just a feature on the side. It’s after YouTube revealed in September 2025 that on average, 30% of its daily logged-in viewers watched live content. Here's a breakdown of what's changed and what it means for your next stream.
What's changed?
YouTube has been rolling out a package of updates to YouTube Live focused on fan support, smarter ad timing, and reaching more viewers across different screens and devices. Barbara Macdonald, YouTube's Product Manager for Live, has shared four specific ways creators can get more out of going live right now.
Gifts now work on horizontal streams. Gifts first launched in November 2024 allowing viewers to pay for items and show support during a stream. Now, YouTube has expanded Gifts to horizontal streams as well as vertical, and made it possible to send Gifts directly from mobile. YouTube has also expanded gift availability to Canada, Korea, Indonesia, Thailand, Australia, and New Zealand, with more countries and locally themed gifts planned.
Supporters get an ad-free window after every purchase. When a viewer sends a Super Chat, Super Sticker, or gift, they'll automatically get a personal ad-free window straight after their purchase so the moment isn't interrupted. This works automatically if you have automatic ads enabled.
Ads pause automatically when chat peaks. YouTube's system now detects when Live Chat is at its most active and holds back ads for everyone at that point, protecting the collective energy of big moments. This also requires automatic ads to be switched on.
You can stream vertical and horizontal at the same time. You can now broadcast in both formats simultaneously, with a single unified chat bringing both audiences together. More customisation tools are coming too, including vertical cropping layouts in Live Studio and the ability to send a completely separate, tailored feed for both your vertical and horizontal streams.
Why this matters for creators
The extra monetization options these updates give you make earning from your streams that much easier. Gifts expanding to horizontal streams means your community can show support however you broadcast, and the ad timing improvements mean those moments of support – and the high-energy spikes that make live streaming worth watching – are no longer at risk of being cut across by an ad.
Live streaming energy is hard to recreate once it's gone, so having YouTube automatically protect those moments keeps the experience seamless for your viewers without you having to manage it mid-stream.
The dual-format update is probably the biggest strategic shift of the four. Over 30% of live watch time on YouTube came from connected TVs in 2025, meaning there's a meaningful chunk of potential viewers who watch best in widescreen, while mobile audiences often prefer vertical. Running both simultaneously means you're not leaving either group behind, and a shared chat means your community stays in one place.
That community piece is worth emphasizing. Live streaming makes the back and forth with your audience more immediate than any other format and that kind of direct connection is what turns casual viewers into loyal regulars.
YouTuber Madame Myriad knows the value of building a connection by responding to viewers: "I'm lucky to have this whole group of usernames that I recognize because they've been commenting on every video since the start. We always have a back and forth in the comments section." A shared chat across both formats means more of your community is in the same space, giving you more chances to build exactly that kind of relationship in real time.
Uppbeat's take: Set up automatic ads and think strategically about your format
These updates collectively give you more control over how you can earn without compromising the quality of the stream. The ad-related features in particular feel like a creator-first move. They protect the moments that matter, which builds better audience experiences and makes your channel more worth coming back to.
If you're streaming on YouTube and you don't have automatic ads enabled, now's the time to switch that on. The ad-free windows and peak chat holds only work if automatic ads are running, so you'd miss both benefits otherwise. Here's what we'd do next:
Enable automatic ads if you haven't already. Head to YouTube Studio, open your live stream settings, and turn on automatic ads so the new ad-free and hold features work as intended.
Check whether gifts are now available in your country. If you're based in Canada, Korea, Indonesia, Thailand, Taiwan, Australia, the United States, or New Zealand and haven't had access before, it's worth revisiting your monetization settings. You can check if you’re eligible at YouTube Help.
Consider running horizontal and vertical at the same time. If your content works across formats – face-to-camera, Q&As, reaction content – test dual streaming to see whether you pick up viewers you'd otherwise miss.
Pay attention to where your live watch time is coming from. If a significant share is already from TV screens, horizontal matters more for that audience. Your YouTube analytics can show you the device breakdown so you can make an informed call.
Think about what your highest-energy chat moments look like. YouTube will automatically hold ads while your chat is peaking, but knowing when your community tends to spike – whether that’s a reveal, an interactive game, a running joke landing – helps you plan stream structures that get more of those moments.
Use motion graphics to prompt interaction from your audience. Animated call-to-action buttons are a simple way to encourage chat responses, gift sending, or reactions at key moments in your stream. Uppbeat's motion graphics library has a range of ready-to-use overlays and animated elements you can drop straight into your setup.
YouTube Live has never made it easier to earn and grow your audience
The bottom line is that these updates make live streaming on YouTube a more rewarding experience for you and your viewers at the same time. Enable automatic ads, explore dual-format streaming if your setup allows for it, and use the tools available to make your streams feel more interactive. The technical side is relatively quick to sort, the bigger opportunity is using that foundation to build the kind of community that keeps showing up stream after stream.
If you want to go deeper on that side of things, Madame Myriad's guide to building a community around your content is worth a read. And if you're looking for motion graphics, royalty-free music, and sound effects to make your streams feel more polished and engaging, Uppbeat has everything you need in one place.
