YouTube’s NEW Features Make Going Viral EASY in 2026 (new algorithm)

[00:00] YouTube just released a bunch of brand

[00:01] new upgrades that make it way easier to

[00:03] go viral on YouTube shorts right now

[00:04] because they just added new placements

[00:06] where YouTube shorts are going to be

[00:07] showing up and they added a new feature

[00:09] that you need to make sure that you're

[00:10] turning on every single time that you go

[00:12] to upload a short. But by the end of

[00:14] this video, you're going to know all

[00:15] these different changes and all the

[00:16] things that you need to do to go viral

[00:18] on YouTube Shorts right now, even if you

[00:20] don't have any subscribers. So, change

[00:22] number one is that YouTube just

[00:24] released, and this is actually a Google

[00:25] release, they released new places where

[00:27] YouTube Shorts could show up. And it's

[00:28] incredibly important that you're making

[00:30] sure one that your content showing up

[00:32] here and two that you begin to optimize

[00:34] your content so it does show up here.

[00:36] And what I'm talking about is now if you

[00:38] come over to Google and let's say that

[00:39] we type in something like YouTube shorts

[00:41] algorithm. What you're going to notice

[00:42] is that if we come under shorts videos

[00:44] right here, you are now going to see a

[00:46] bunch of YouTube shorts. And this is

[00:48] really what I wanted to show you and

[00:50] what I wanted to emphasize because if we

[00:51] look under here, we could see that I

[00:53] show up number one. If I scroll down a

[00:55] little bit, we could see that I don't

[00:57] show up again. So, this is actually a

[00:58] huge missed opportunity for me because

[01:01] if we look at this guy right here, Dross

[01:03] video, he's got this video, this video,

[01:05] this video, this video, this video. He's

[01:08] literally showing in four of the eight

[01:10] placements here. And this is actually

[01:11] what you should be doing with your

[01:12] content. And you can upload multiple

[01:14] videos on the same topic to ensure that

[01:16] this happens and skyrocket the odds that

[01:18] your content actually gets clicked on.

[01:19] And now, in the past, this was really

[01:21] difficult to do. You had to upload

[01:23] multiple pieces of content. You had to

[01:24] edit multiple pieces of content. and you

[01:26] had to film multiple pieces of content

[01:27] and it really would have only been

[01:29] possible if you had a team helping you

[01:31] out. But there's now a new AI tool that

[01:32] makes doing this incredibly easy. Now,

[01:35] that tool that I'm talking about is

[01:36] going to be Nexus Clips right here

[01:37] because once you sign up for Nexus

[01:39] Clips, you're going to see video to

[01:40] clips right here. And you could see that

[01:41] you could actually go through and you

[01:43] can create clips from any video that you

[01:45] want. In fact, you could hook up your

[01:47] YouTube channel, you could hook up a

[01:48] Twitch account, you could just upload

[01:50] videos if you wanted to. And this is

[01:52] going to allow you to clip up your long

[01:54] form content and your live. So, what

[01:55] this is going to allow you to do is get

[01:57] multiple shorts on the same topic so

[01:59] that you can upload them and take

[02:00] advantage of that new placement. So,

[02:02] we're going to come over here. We're

[02:03] going to actually go through uploaded.

[02:05] What I'm going to do is I'm going to

[02:06] upload this video right here. This video

[02:08] is about the YouTube algorithm. So, what

[02:10] I'm going to be doing right here is I'm

[02:11] actually going to be creating a bunch of

[02:13] shorts. So, we create clips by analyzing

[02:15] the audio. So, it's essential that your

[02:16] video has voice. Got it. My video does

[02:18] have voice. We need to come through

[02:19] here. We're going to select English.

[02:21] We're going to select create clips right

[02:22] here. Now, this is going to go through

[02:24] and this is actually going to create

[02:25] these clips right here and we can see

[02:27] that they'll be ready in just a few

[02:29] minutes. And then once they are ready,

[02:30] I'm going to show you exactly what it

[02:32] looks like. And what we're going to do

[02:34] is we're going to take all the clips

[02:35] from this. We're going to be able to

[02:36] upload it. So, I have more things

[02:38] showing up under YouTube shorts

[02:40] algorithm right here. Okay. So, now that

[02:42] this has gone through, we can now click

[02:43] on this right here and we could see all

[02:45] of these different clips here. And

[02:46] what's great about this is one, this

[02:48] actually goes through and scores them

[02:50] all with virality index. two, this makes

[02:52] all these different clips different

[02:54] lengths. So, we'll actually be able to

[02:55] upload different length content when we

[02:58] upload all of these different clips. And

[03:00] if we wanted to generate new clips, we

[03:01] could click right here. Otherwise, we

[03:03] could go through and actually create

[03:04] clips. For example, I'm going to create

[03:06] this one because it's the 95. We're

[03:07] going to click on create clip right

[03:09] here. Then, we could download it

[03:11] directly from here. Or we could come

[03:13] into edit right here. This will actually

[03:15] let us edit our clip. And just like

[03:17] that, we have this here where we can

[03:19] actually go through and edit. We could

[03:20] go through and we could add in a hook

[03:22] right here if we wanted to. We could add

[03:24] in custom subtitles. And if we come

[03:26] under framing right here, we could

[03:27] change the framing of this however we

[03:29] want, like full screen, or we could even

[03:31] do like a miniature screen. In fact,

[03:33] this is what a lot of people do when

[03:35] they're showing off something that's

[03:36] actually on screen. They have this right

[03:38] here, and then they might have a mini

[03:40] version of themselves so that they could

[03:41] show in the corner. And you can actually

[03:43] come over here and adjust all this,

[03:45] which makes for a great editing

[03:46] experience and allows you to very

[03:48] quickly without any editing experience,

[03:50] without hiring new people, go through

[03:52] and actually get a bunch of clips you

[03:55] can then upload to rank for this new

[03:56] placement. Now, if you want to try Nexus

[03:58] Clips for yourself, to make going viral

[04:00] on YouTube shorts easy, I would strongly

[04:02] suggest you go to the pin comment below

[04:03] and get signed up today. This tool has

[04:05] made it so much easier for me to be able

[04:07] to get out a ton of shorts from my long

[04:09] form content and my lives and it's going

[04:11] to do the same for you. But that was

[04:13] just change number one. Change number

[04:15] two is that YouTube just released a

[04:17] brand new update and it's a new setting

[04:18] that you need to make sure that you're

[04:20] turning on every single time you go to

[04:22] upload something on YouTube shorts. And

[04:24] if you don't do this, it's going to

[04:25] drastically decrease the odds that you

[04:27] end up getting reach because it's going

[04:28] to do three things. One, it's going to

[04:30] make YouTube a lot harder. two,

[04:32] understand whether or not your video is

[04:34] about the right topic or even a topic

[04:36] that your audience is interested in.

[04:38] Secondly, this is actually going to

[04:39] decrease the amount of watch time that

[04:41] you get on your videos because if you

[04:42] don't add this in, it's going to

[04:44] decrease that. And three, this is

[04:45] actually going to restrict the audience

[04:48] that's going to be available to see your

[04:50] content if you do not turn this on. So,

[04:52] please trying to emphasize it right now.

[04:54] I cannot emphasize it enough. This next

[04:56] feature is incredibly important and it

[04:58] literally just came out in the last 24

[05:00] hours. Okay. So, in order to actually

[05:02] see that new setting, you're going to

[05:03] want to come over here and we are going

[05:05] to upload a YouTube short for fun here.

[05:07] So, I'm going to click on select files

[05:08] right here. I'm going to grab just a

[05:10] random YouTube short that I have. This

[05:12] one right here. We could see it's

[05:14] notifying me that I am uploading a

[05:15] short. I'm going to come over here. I'm

[05:17] going to click no. It's not made for

[05:18] kids just so we could get to the next

[05:19] screen. None of the above just so we

[05:21] could get to the next screen. And the

[05:23] new feature that they have is showing up

[05:25] under video elements right here. You are

[05:27] going to see subtitles. So, subtitles

[05:29] are going to allow you to reach a

[05:31] broader audience by adding subtitles to

[05:33] your video. And YouTube just added the

[05:35] ability for you to actually be able to

[05:36] do this inside of here, which is quite

[05:38] incredible. Now, there's three different

[05:40] ways that you could add these in. One,

[05:42] you could upload a file. Two, you could

[05:44] use autosync. Three, you could actually

[05:46] go through and type them in manually.

[05:48] Now, what I would strongly suggest that

[05:50] you do is I would use autosync so that

[05:52] it goes through and actually does this

[05:54] automatically. But if you needed to, you

[05:56] could type these in manually for each of

[05:58] these settings. So if I actually come

[06:00] over here, I could type all these in.

[06:02] You can see that I could type it in

[06:03] here. I could type it in here. And then

[06:05] we actually see it showing up on the

[06:06] screen right here. Now, you need to make

[06:08] sure that you're doing this. I cannot

[06:10] emphasize this enough. If you are not

[06:12] doing this on YouTube, what's going to

[06:14] end up happening is you're not actually

[06:15] going to get the benefit from it. If

[06:17] you're doing this a different way, it's

[06:18] not actually going to increase the

[06:20] amount of views that you get. But we

[06:21] could see right here that this actually

[06:23] does. And we could just come through

[06:24] here and you could add all of these in.

[06:26] Now, like I was saying, if you go

[06:28] through and do this manually, this is

[06:29] going to take you an incredibly long

[06:31] time to do. So, I would strongly suggest

[06:33] just using that autosync feature and

[06:35] it'll automatically do it for you. Now,

[06:37] in addition to that new setting when you

[06:39] go to upload content on YouTube Shorts,

[06:41] there's also new settings inside of your

[06:42] account settings. And you need to make

[06:44] sure that you're going in and you're

[06:45] turning these on because YouTube doesn't

[06:47] automatically turn these on. So, let's

[06:49] go through exactly how to do that.

[06:50] Because again, if you don't turn on

[06:52] these features, your content is going to

[06:54] be uploaded in lowquality, both from a

[06:57] video perspective and from an audio

[06:59] perspective. And I can't believe that

[07:00] YouTube doesn't just turn this on for

[07:02] everybody. In fact, I don't know why

[07:04] they haven't. In addition to that,

[07:05] there's another feature that you need to

[07:07] make sure that you're turning on that's

[07:08] actually going to allow your audience to

[07:10] vote for your content to get more views.

[07:13] And this is the number one way, by far

[07:15] the number one way for small channels

[07:16] just like yours to go viral. Because if

[07:18] your content can get upvoted, it's going

[07:20] to increase the odds that you go viral.

[07:22] And guess what? Your audience only gets

[07:23] five votes a week and they could use all

[07:26] five of those votes on your content, but

[07:28] only if you have this feature turned on.

[07:30] Now, in order to access those account

[07:32] settings that you need to make sure that

[07:33] you're turning on, you want to come into

[07:35] settings right here. We're then going to

[07:37] come under channel right here and we're

[07:38] going to see that if we scroll down

[07:40] under advanced settings. This is where

[07:42] you're actually going to see them. So

[07:44] the first setting you want to make sure

[07:45] is turned on. No, not made for kids.

[07:48] This is automatically then going to

[07:49] apply this to your content. I would

[07:51] strongly suggest that you do that so you

[07:52] don't have to go through and do it each

[07:53] time. The only time that you should ever

[07:56] put yes is if you were specifically

[07:58] uploading children's content. In order

[08:00] to show you an example of this, we could

[08:02] pull this up right here. This is going

[08:03] to be like ABC's content, right? So if

[08:06] we type in ABC's content, we could see

[08:08] like stuff like this. If you were

[08:09] uploading literally children's content,

[08:11] put yes. Otherwise, you should always

[08:13] have no. In addition to that, if we come

[08:15] down here, channel insight sharing, I

[08:17] would strongly suggest that you have

[08:19] this turned off. This is going to share

[08:21] your information with advertisers,

[08:23] brands, and thirdparty platforms that

[08:25] could potentially increase your

[08:26] earnings, but then you're giving up all

[08:28] of your private data. So I wouldn't

[08:30] recommend doing that. In addition to

[08:31] that, if we scroll down here, we should

[08:33] turn all these on. Automatic dubbing.

[08:35] Make sure this is turned on. Make sure

[08:37] manual is turned on. When we come down

[08:39] here, clips, make sure this is turned

[08:41] on. Video quality enhancements, make

[08:43] sure these are turned on. Hype right

[08:45] here, make sure this is turned on. Third

[08:47] party tracking, I would turn that off.

[08:50] Again, it's going to give people access

[08:52] to your data. I would just strongly

[08:53] suggest that you don't do that. And

[08:54] really, those big new features I was

[08:56] talking about were these video quality

[08:58] enhancements right here, this hype right

[09:00] here, these clips right here, this

[09:02] dubbing right here. And if we scroll up,

[09:04] turning off this stuff. Now again, if

[09:06] you look at your settings, it's probably

[09:08] going to be set up the wrong way. And

[09:10] these are new things. So even if you've

[09:12] checked your settings, like in the last

[09:14] few weeks, I go check again just to make

[09:16] sure you have these correct. Then that

[09:18] last thing that we need to talk about is

[09:20] all the additional placements that

[09:21] YouTube Shorts can show up in. Because

[09:23] if we look at 2023, we look at 2024, if

[09:26] we look at 2025, the far majority of

[09:29] views on YouTube Shorts was coming from

[09:32] the Shorts feed. In fact, almost 100% of

[09:34] views were coming from the Shorts feed,

[09:35] but now only 30% of views come from the

[09:38] Shorts feed. The other 70% of views are

[09:40] going to be coming from two other

[09:42] locations. The first one is going to be

[09:43] browse features, aka YouTube shorts

[09:46] showing up on people's homepages. And

[09:48] then the second is going to be in the

[09:49] YouTube search results. And no, when I

[09:51] say search results, I'm literally

[09:53] talking about YouTube. I'm not talking

[09:54] about the Google search results like I

[09:56] was showing you earlier and that new

[09:57] placement. Because if somebody does a

[09:59] search for something on their mobile

[10:01] device, odds are they're getting shown

[10:02] shorts. And if they do a search on a

[10:04] computer, odds are they're also going to

[10:06] get shown shorts. So you need to make

[10:08] sure that you're actually going through

[10:10] and optimizing your content to show in

[10:11] these placements. There are three things

[10:13] you want to do correctly. Okay. So here

[10:16] are those settings that really, really

[10:17] matter when you're uploading a YouTube

[10:19] short and you want to be able to rank

[10:20] for search. So if we look at this video

[10:22] right here, 2.4 million views. If we

[10:24] actually come into the analytics of

[10:25] this, we could see 75% of the traffic

[10:27] I'm getting is from YouTube search.

[10:29] There's three reasons for that. The

[10:31] first reason for that is if we come over

[10:33] here to what this thumbnail looks like.

[10:34] I'm doing something very specific here.

[10:36] I am pointing to a setting and I put

[10:39] turn on these settings to grow faster.

[10:41] Now, what this is is this is a custom

[10:42] thumbnail. I added that text in and I

[10:45] grabbed this screen grab from part of

[10:47] the video, but it wasn't actually part

[10:49] of the video. What I did was I took this

[10:51] screen grab and I put it in like the

[10:53] last few seconds of the video, really

[10:55] like the last millisecond of the video

[10:57] so that I could actually grab it and

[10:58] then actually be able to create a really

[11:00] good thumbnail from that. And you need

[11:01] to make sure that you're doing the same

[11:03] exact thing with your content because if

[11:04] you're not adding in a custom thumbnail,

[11:06] you're not going to stand out when

[11:07] people go to search for things. As a

[11:09] result, people aren't going to click on

[11:11] your video. And like I said, this is

[11:12] really, really important for browse

[11:14] features right here and for YouTube

[11:16] search, which we could see accounts for

[11:18] about 85% of the views that this post is

[11:20] getting. So, if I didn't have those

[11:22] things on, this video would have done

[11:23] fine, but it wouldn't have gone this

[11:25] viral. In addition to that, if we come

[11:26] into the details, there are three things

[11:28] I'm doing inside of here. If we see

[11:30] right here, we see YouTube settings

[11:32] right here, which is incredibly

[11:34] important because we see that in the

[11:35] title, we see that in the description,

[11:37] it actually shows in the description

[11:39] twice. And then if we actually scroll

[11:40] down to the tags of this video, we're

[11:42] going to see that it shows up multiple

[11:44] times. So I have my thumbnail on here.

[11:46] It's correct. My title, my description,

[11:48] my tags are correct. In addition to

[11:50] that, if I scroll down just a little bit

[11:51] more, we're going to see that I have the

[11:53] correct category here. Education. Most

[11:55] creators mess up one of these things.

[11:57] I'm calling it three things, but it's

[11:59] really five things that you need to make

[12:01] sure that you're doing. If you do these

[12:02] five things and make good content, guess

[12:04] what? It's going to increase the odds

[12:05] that you rank for search and for browse

[12:07] features also. Now, if you enjoyed this

[12:09] video and you want to learn exactly how

[12:10] the YouTube algorithm works right now

[12:12] for 2026, specifically for YouTube

[12:14] shorts, I would strongly suggest that

[12:16] you check out this video right here that

[12:17] walks you through exactly how the

[12:19] algorithm works, how you can take

[12:20] advantage of it, and everything else

[12:22] that you need to know to grow fast right

[12:23] now on YouTube.