YouTube launches the "Hype" feature to help promote smaller channels

YouTube has introduced a new feature called "Hype", which aims to support and grow small channels. The feature helps users discover and share content from new creators.

If the video was published less than seven days ago and its author has fewer than 500,000 subscribers, viewers can help promote it by "hyping" it - to ensure more successful promotion than with simply liking and sharing. The "Hype" button appears after a viewer likes a post.

The more "hype points" a video receives, the higher it will appear in the new leaderboard, featuring the top 100 "hyped" videos of the week.

The leaderboards are specific to each country, and over time, YouTube plans to personalize the "Hype" section for each individual user.

YouTube also adds "Inspiration" tab to YouTube Studio, helping creators come up with ideas, titles, and thumbnails for their videos. YouTube describes this tool as a brainstorming feature, but it can also be helpful when creating more complex projects.