Toni Dimaano Tech 12.20.2022 09:Dec AM EST

YouTube Tests Courses, Other Features In India

Google has consistently updated the platform with new features to better serve its Indian viewers in order to support its growth.

With this, the company unveiled new YouTube features tailored to Indian audiences, such as AI-powered text search within videos and automatic dubbing in local languages for healthcare videos.

Google Introduces Courses To YouTube

With Indian viewers playing a significant role, YouTube, the biggest platform for sharing videos, has only grown in size in recent years.

Because of this, the video streaming platform has been announcing several new features for its Indian audiences at the annual Indian conference of the company.

The company unveiled a feature called Courses that will enable creators to charge for access to a library of instructional videos as well as any supplemental PDFs or images that go with the appropriate videos.

Courses may be a way for YouTubers to compete with other for-profit educational services, but they can also be offered for no cost, The Verge reports.

For the first time, Google will permit creators to market their courses directly to users, despite being filled with educational videos, with creators earning through ads already.

According to Android Police, the new Courses feature will give YouTube content creators an additional revenue stream.

However, it is important to note that the revenue split for courses purchased on the platform will be the same as for regular videos, with creators receiving a 55% cut and YouTube keeping the remaining 45%.

With a focus on digital skills, professional and entrepreneurial skills, and personal passions, courses for YouTube will launch in India as a beta in the first half of 2023.

Google Is Constantly Adding New Features To YouTube Specific To India

According to The Verge, the tech giant claims to be "piloting" a feature that would allow users of its Search app to search within videos.

Users will be able to tap a "search in video" button if they search for something and get video results, which will let users type in a phrase to see if it shows up in the audio transcript.

Google will then list all instances of that subject in the video by using artificial intelligence (AI), which is better than skimming through a long video with various chapters.

Users have had access to the ability to search through a video's automatically or manually generated transcript for quite some time on desktop.

However, it required opening the video and transcript manually, followed by using the search on page feature of your browser.

YouTube also announced that it would begin experimenting with allowing users to do the same in its mobile apps in October 2021.

Although it has since made it possible to view the transcript on iOS or Android, searching through it isn't always possible.

Android Police writes that Google has partnered with the best healthcare providers in India to deliver reliable results.

The company is also using AI/ML-powered Aloud to enable Indians to translate, dub, and transcribe videos with just one click, in order to serve the diverse audience in India that speaks various languages.

Lastly, Google is also closely collaborating with Apollo Hospitals to test a new feature that will enable viewers to seamlessly switch between other languages.

This will be possible with the click of a button which will then offer a single video with multiple audio tracks in various languages.