Mohan's blog also announced new features of monetization, including applause, enabling fans to purchase a one-time clapping animation that appears on top of the video. A certain percentage of the revenue from each applause purchased is given to creators. There are already similar instruments like this, including Super Chat. Mohan did not say when creators will be able to access the feature, only that individuals should be able to "unlock" it later this year.
YouTube is beta testing a "new integrated shopping experience" on top of that, which will be launched later this year. The concept is that people can buy products from channels whose views they trust.
According to a YouTube spokesperson, creators can tag items in their videos to allow viewers to buy them if they want. As long as the product is in the catalog of YouTube, creators can tag them and those products can be bought by viewers. These products are currently restricted to the categories of beauty and electronics. If a product is purchased from their channel, The Verge has asked YouTube for more information about the breakdown of revenue for creators.
The company is rolling out a few product features that will directly impact what and how they watch in an effort to give people more control over parts of YouTube and how they watch videos. The product team will offer new parental tools on the YouTube Kids app that will enable parents, according to the blog, to add specific videos and channels from the main app. This will allow kids to watch videos that parents think are acceptable, but that may not appear in the YouTube Kids app due to restrictions in place.
Finally, the YouTube team is also extending its "chapters" function, which adds videos to specific timestamps. They will soon be added to relevant videos automatically, which may require chapters (like lo-fi chillhop channels). In Mohan's blog, more detailed information about all the changes can be read alongside the videos that the product team of YouTube will release throughout the year detailing what is to come.