YouTube is one of the most popular entertainment apps in the world. It allows you to both upload and watch an endless stream of videos. But no app is perfect, and even apps like YouTube can sometimes lack a very small feature that should’ve been there from the start. We are talking about adding custom thumbnails to YouTube playlists. YouTube has always lacked this feature since the start, but the company has added it in the latest app update.
You can now add custom thumbnails to your YouTube playlists, but there’s a catch
First spotted by Android Authority, YouTube has rolled out an update for its mobile app, which allows adding custom thumbnails to playlists. The new functionality is available in version 19.37.35 of the YouTube app on Android. Notably, the first instances of the new feature were found in an APK teardown of the app earlier in June.
YouTube is now allowing users to add custom thumbnails to their playlists, but there’s a catch. It doesn’t yet allow you to upload any image as a thumbnail. Instead, the functionality has been provided via a few preset themes, much like the AI-enabled album art generation feature. Also, this feature isn’t live for everyone yet. It is only available for those with a verified YouTube account.
Here’s how to use the new thumbnail feature
First of all, go to the YouTube app and verify your phone number. Then, you will find a new button with a pencil icon that’s placed in the bottom right corner of playlist thumbnails. Click on this button and select one of the available themes – Colors, Cycles, Travel, Moods, Nature, Animals, Landscapes, or Food and Drinks.
The feature will then generate a custom thumbnail based on the selected theme. There’s also an option to change the AI-generated custom thumbnail using different preconfigured prompts.
The new feature is a welcome move as you can refresh your themes with different thumbnails every day. We hope that the company adds the ability to upload custom images for the thumbnails soon.
2024-09-19 15:08:49