New updates released for YouTube Live: sending gifts, ad-free windows, live chat engagement and more
To improve the user experience and help creators make more money, some new updates are being rolled out to YouTube Live.
Live streaming is a massive part of YouTube, and that’s because of the @youtubecreators who build incredible communities on our platform.
We’re rolling out some major updates to YouTube Live to improve the experience and help creators make more money:
↔️We're expanding Gifts to… pic.twitter.com/zu5J0Qq4kP
— Neal Mohan (@nealmohan) April 13, 2026
New updates released to YouTube Live
Sending Gifts
Now, viewers can send gifts on your horizontal live streams, in addition to vertical, directly from their mobile device. Gifts are also now live for more creators around the world, including Canada, Korea, Indonesia, Thailand, Australia, and New Zealand.
The company is also working on bringing gifts to more countries and rolling out unique gifts for local holidays and events.
Ad-free windows for Supers and gift purchases
When a fan shows support with a Super Chat, Super Stickers, or gifts, you want to thank them right away. To make sure that moment isn’t interrupted, we’ll be rolling out an update that automatically creates a personal ad-free window right after their purchase. Once live, it will automatically work for any creator who has automatic ads enabled, a great reason to make sure you’re set up.
Live Chat Engagement
YouTube’s system now recognises when Live Chat engagement is at its peak and automatically holds back ads for everyone. This helps you keep the momentum going for the whole community without being broken up by an ad. This also works only when you have automatic ads turned on.
Customise your stream
With the latest updates, for streaming across formats, you can now go live in both vertical and horizontal at the same time, with everyone joining a single shared chat.
In the coming months, more customisation tools like vertical cropping layouts in Live Studio and multiple stream keys will be rolled out. This will let you send a completely separate, customised feed for both your vertical and horizontal streams.
Stay tuned with The Tech Outlook for the latest tech updates.
