Heena Sharma Blog

  India’s one of the oldest and largest music labels Tips Music on Thursday announced a music licensing deal with Google for the latter’s newly introduced short-video platform YouTube “Shorts”. As part of this deal, Tips will license its large catalogue to YouTube platform allowing the huge Indian diaspora across the world to create content inspired its ever popular and superhit music library in diverse Indian languages like Hindi, Punjabi, Bhojpuri, Haryanvi, Marathi, Gujarati, amongst many others. “The deal will allow our community of fans to create fresh new content alongside their favourite music from Tips music library. This partnership will open possibilities for creators and users to explore their creativity which may give us our next future star. What better way to celebrate our new generation of talent,” said Kumar Taurani, founder, Tips Music. YouTube Shorts is a short-video service offering by Google which allows users, creators and artists to create short video c...

  Google has updated its YouTube iOS app for the first time in over two months, becoming one of the highest-profile Google apps to see an update since early December. Although there's been speculation that the reason for the lack of updates to iOS versions of Gmail, Docs, Search, and Photos is an attempt to avoid Apple's new privacy labels, Google has explicitly denied that was the case. Last month, the company said in a blog post that it would add the labels to its apps when updates were available, reports The Verge. As Google's iOS apps are updated with new features or to fix bugs, users will see updates to our app page listings that include the new App Privacy Details. These labels represent the maximum categories of data that could be collected -- meaning if you use every available feature and service in the app, the report said. The data you provide to Google products delivers helpful services to users, and users can always control your privacy settings by visi...

  YouTube Gaming has revealed that 2020 has been its biggest year ever, with 100 billion watch-time hours -- double the number of hours watched in 2018 -- and over 40 million active gaming channels. Of that 100 billion watch-time hours, 10 billion were of YouTube Gaming live streams, signalling a strong competition for Amazon-owned Twitch.   The Google-owned platform said out of 40 million active gaming channels, 80,000 channels hit 100,000 subscribers this past year. More than 1,000 channels broke 5 million subscribers in 2020, while more than 350 channels hit 10 million subscribers. "In fact, there has never been a better time to be a YouTube Gaming creator. Over 350 gaming creators reached a whopping 10 million subscribers," said Ryan Wyatt, Head of Global Gaming at YouTube. Read More    

  To encourage respectful conversations, YouTube is launching a new feature that will warn users when their comment may be offensive to others, giving them the option to reflect before posting. From the reminder, the commenter can move forward with posting the comment as is, or take a few extra moments to edit the comment before posting it. The notification will appear before the comment YouTube's AI-based systems deem offensive. Johanna Wright, Vice President of Product Management At YouTube, said that in order to help creators better manage comments and connect with their audience, the company will test a new filter in YouTube Studio for potentially inappropriate and hurtful comments that have been automatically held for review. "So that creators don't ever need to read them if they don't want to. We'll also be streamlining the comment moderation tools to make this process even easier for creators," Wright said in a blog post on Thursday. Read More

  The latest YouTube for Android TV update has reportedly started rolling out limited support for 8K streaming . According to a report in Android Police, YouTube TV for Android v. 2.12.08 version includes support for 8K streaming to TVs running Android 10 and above. The changelog states that the update brings 8K streaming support to a limited number of devices, but it doesn't specify exactly which models are supported right now. Apart from the limited 8K streaming support, the latest YouTube for Android TV update brings another noteworthy change - Cast Connect support. Cast Connect will let users control caste media on their Android TV with the TV's remote control instead of controlling it with the device that's casting the media. Interestingly, YouTube's changelog had initially featured support for AV1 HDR playback, but was later omitted to include the Cast Connect support. Read More

  In a bid to help marketers and creators further grow brand awareness on its platform, YouTube has introduced audio ads -- its first ad format designed to connect brands with audiences in engaged and ambient listening. Audio ads, currently in beta, will help companies efficiently expand reach and grow brand awareness with audio-based creative and the same measurement, audience and brand safety features as video campaigns, the Google-owned platform said on Tuesday. "With music video streaming at an all time high on YouTube -- more than 50 per cent of logged-in viewers who consume music content in a day consume more than 10 minutes of music content -- we're introducing new solutions for your brand to be seen, heard and recognised alongside music content," said Melissa Hsieh Nikolic, Group Product Manager, YouTube Ads. Read More

  YouTube has announced its own short-form video service named YouTube Shorts . Currently in beta, the early version of the service is available in India for users with Android smartphones. The current version includes just the camera interface, and the editing tools will roll out in graded manner over the course of the next few weeks. Here are five things to know about YouTube short-form video service. What is YouTube Shorts Shorts is a short-form video service that lets user create and upload a video of 15 seconds or less on YouTube. Currently available in early beta in India, the service is part of YouTube app for Android. It features a multi-segment camera to string multiple video clips together, the option to record with music from a library of songs, speed controls, and a timer and countdown to keep you notified. Read More  

You can now stream videos on YouTube app for smartphones at their native resolutions. The video streaming platform has removed the 480p (standard definition) limit on video quality that it had imposed in March this year. The cap on video quality was implemented to ease load on the networks, which had seen unprecedented surge across the world due to coronavirus lockdown. YouTube has removed the standard definition video quality restriction on smartphones, including iOS and Android devices, but not for everyone. While you can now stream videos on YouTube in their native resolutions, it works only if you are connected through Wi-Fi network. On mobile networks, which are still facing stress due to rise in digital services like video conferencing, webinars, et al., there is still a standard definition video limit cap. On other devices like smart televisions, the YouTube app continues to allow streaming videos in native resolution. Read More

Short-video sharing platform TikTok , owned by Chinese firm ByteDance , is facing a huge backlash in India after an internet war broke out between its influencers and YouTube content creators. The app's rating on Google Play Store reduced to 1.3 stars on May 20 from more than 4.5 stars only a few days earlier. Moreover, there has been a growing demand for a ban on the platform in India owing to alleged distribution of insensitive and hateful content on TikTok . Recently, the National Commission for Women (NCW) wrote to the video-sharing social networking service TikTok over a video in which one of its users allegedly glorified acid attack and crime against women. The video has been taken down since, and the user's account has been suspended. Read More

Chinese smartphone manufacturer Realme on Friday announced to launch its much-anticipated TV and smartwatch in India on May 25. According to the company, it will host an online event which will be streamed via Realme's YouTube channel as well as its social media platforms. "The wait is finally over, the party is about to get started with Realme! As we are ready to introduce new members of our family - the Realme TV and the Realme Watch along with other accessories," the company said in a statement. The Realme TVs would compete against Xiaomi TV which already has several successful TV models in the country along with OnePlus TV. Read More

With the penetration of mobile phones, the reliance on the device has increased many folds. Be it shopping, gaming or banking, there has been an immense growth in the hours people spend on their mobile phones. According to App Annie's latest report, TikTok and PUBG Mobile continued to dominate the mobile space in India. TikTok was the breakout social app of 2019 in the Indian market, while PUBG Mobile saw the highest consumer spend in games in the country. PUBG Mobile remained a distant third in breakout games of 2019 in terms of downloads as Carrom Pool clinched the top spot, followed by Free Fire. However, it bagged the top spot in the same category from consumer spend point of view. The rankings are based on year-on-year growth in both Apple’s iOS and Google Play downloads. While TikTok was ahead of all social media apps in India, according to AppAnnie, the larger trend was that hyper-local social apps grew in demand with consumers looking for smaller circles rath...

YouTube has signed up more than 800,000 subscribers for its paid services in India since debuting in March, according to people familiar with the matter, vaulting it past competitors in one of the world’s fastest-growing media markets. The services are growing faster than rival paid music offerings in India, including Spotify and local players Gaana and JioSaavn, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the subscriber data hasn’t been released. The one paid service that could have more users than YouTube is Apple Music, which has been tight-lipped about its subscriber figures. YouTube has long struggled to to gets users to pay for its services, especially since the company’s main website is synonymous with free videos. But the Google division has started to gain traction, and the numbers out of India suggest it’s having particular success in the world’s second-most-populous country. YouTube sells two paid services in India: YouTube Music Premium an...

Content creators have criticised new Terms of Service from Google-owned YouTube that gives the company power to terminate account access for users if it deems the account is "no longer commercially viable". The video sharing platform started sending out the emails to users last week to notify about the upcoming changes to its terms of service to come into effect from December 10. "YouTube may terminate your access, or your Google account's access to all or part of the Service if YouTube believes, in its sole discretion, that provision of the Service to you is no longer commercially viable," the new YouTube terms of service read. "We will notify you with the reason for termination or suspension by YouTube," it added. The move hasn't gone well with content creators. The new terms of service have also left users baffled. "Y'all, tell @YouTube this isn't okay. This affects everybody, including you're favorite content cr...

Considering that most of us use at least one Google service in our daily routine, we end up creating some data that get saved on Google’s servers. This data could be related to your Android device configuration, search history, videos watched on YouTube, bookmarks, calendar entries, files and folders saved on GDrive, etc. Thankfully, Google has a provision that allows you to review your settings for Google products and also gives you the option to download all the data related to a Google account as one single file. Here are the steps to do so: Step 1: Connect your notebook or desktop to internet Step 2: Go to any modern browser, preferably Google Chrome Step 3: Go to https://myaccount.google.com/ and sign in using your Google account Step 4: Look for ‘Data & Personalisation’ in left side menu and click on it Step 5: Inside the ‘Data & Personalisation’ settings, scroll down and look for ‘Download, delete, or make a plan for your data’ option Step 6: Of the...

A year ago, Susan Wojcicki was on stage to defend YouTube . Her company, hammered for months for fueling falsehoods online, was reeling from another flare-up involving a conspiracy theory video about the Parkland, Florida high school shooting that suggested the victims were “crisis actors.” Wojcicki, YouTube’s chief executive officer, is a reluctant public ambassador, but she was in Austin at the South by Southwest conference to unveil a solution that she hoped would help quell conspiracy theories: a tiny text box from websites like Wikipedia that would sit below videos that questioned well-established facts like the moon landing and link viewers to the truth. Wojcicki’s media behemoth, bent on overtaking television, is estimated to rake in sales of more than $16 billion a year. But on that day, Wojcicki compared her video site to a different kind of institution. “We’re really more like a library,” she said, staking out a familiar position as a defender of free speech. “There ...

Google has introduced its YouTube music app in India, offering local and global songs to a booming market that saw the entry of Spotify just a few days ago. The YouTube Music streaming and download service in India includes popular Bollywood Hindi scores and other local-language music, the Mountainview, California-based technology giant said in a blog post. The free service is supported by commercials, while a premium version with no advertisements costs 99 rupees ($1.42) a month. YouTube is already India’s most popular online music source via its free mainstay video service. In the paid streaming niche, the music app is challenging rivals including Stockholm-based Spotify Technology SA, Amazon.com and JioSaavn, Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s music service. While streaming services have about 100 million users in India, only a tiny fraction of that pays. Industry sales in India climbed 17 percent in 2017, driven by increases in online subscription revenue. Read More ...

Google-owned video sharing platform YouTube has announced that it will no longer recommend videos that "come close to" violating its community guidelines, such as conspiracy or medically inaccurate videos. The video sharing platform will no longer recommend videos "claiming the earth is flat, or making blatantly false claims about historic events like 9/11", NBC News reported on Monday. The original blog post from YouTube, published on January 25, said videos the site recommends, usually after a user has viewed one, would no longer lead to similar videos and instead would "pull in recommendations from a wider set of topics". YouTube said in the post that the action is meant to "reduce the spread of content that comes close to - but doesn't quite cross the line of - violating" its community policies. The change will not affect the videos' availability. And if users have subscribed to a channel that, for instance, produces c...

Veteran actor Anupam Kher , who has impersonated former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in "The Accidental Prime Minister", says the trailer of the film is not easily available on YouTube . "Dear YouTube, I am getting messages and calls that in parts of our country if you type, trailer of 'The Accidental Prime Minister' , it is either not appearing or at 50th position. We were trending at No. 1 yesterday. Please help," Anupam tweeted. If one searches for the trailer of "The Accidental Prime Minister" on YouTube, the user ends up getting Anupam's interviews regarding the film. However, if one types "' The Accidental Prime Minister ' official trailer", the trailer will emerge right at the top. Ever since the release of the film's trailer, the project has been dogged by controversies. Satyajeet Tambe Patil -- President of the Maharashtra State Youth Congress -- sent a letter to the producer of the film dema...

With impressive earnings of $22 million, a seven-year-old American boy has become this year's highest-paid YouTube star , beating established adults in the business like Daniel Middleton and Jake Paul, according to Forbes.      Forbes' list of " Highest-Paid YouTube Stars 2018 " is topped by Ryan of Ryan ToysReview , who makes millions by reviewing everything from toys to cars and Legos through simple home-made videos that are uploaded on his YouTube channel by his parents. Last year, it was reported that Ryan made $11 million from his YouTube channel, coming in at number 8 on Forbes' 2017 list, but the toy critic is on an up-move. His YouTube channel has attracted a huge following of parents and children who watch Ryan test new toys and share his thoughts on them. The prestigious US business magazine said his short videos made Ryan one of the most popular influencers online, with 17.3 million followers and a total of nearly 26 billion views since...

Mastanamma got her big break at age 105. After she prepared an especially delicious eggplant curry, her great-grandson suggested that he film her cooking and then post the videos on YouTube . No matter that she was more than 100 years old, suffered from cataracts, wore dentures, cooked outside on an open fire and sometimes roasted chicken inside a steaming watermelon. That was all part of the charm. Over the next two years, she became the star of a YouTube channel with an audience of more than one million subscribers. She specialized in adding flair to traditional Indian dishes, especially fish ones, but occasionally experimented with chicken pizza and chocolate cake. “She knew she was famous,” said Srinath Reddy, who helped start the channel. “She loved that.” On Sunday, Mastanamma’s family and friends announced, she died at age 107. “MISS YOU GRANNY,” the moderators of her YouTube channel, Country Foods, wrote. Mr. Reddy described her as one of a kind. Read Mor...