Youtubers will soon have an easier time choosing the perfect video thumbnail.
YouTube recently announced it is conducting early testing of a feature YouTubers have long requested in the past, which would allow them to test and compare how successful a video thumbnail is among its peers.
YouTube's announcement comes after the silent resurrection of its "Sort by Oldest" option in a new form after removing it from its website and app more than a year ago.
YouTube Test And Compare Details
YouTube mentioned in a video announcement that it is currently testing a feature called "Test & Compare" with a few hundred creators, allowing them to try it for themselves and send feedback to YouTube to improve on it further.
According to a Creator Insider producer named Lauren, the feature will help YouTubers compare the performance of up to three thumbnails for a single video and allow them to select the winning one according to YouTube's testing.
According to The Verge, YouTube would experiment behind the scenes to see which of the three would perform the best for their video; a screenshot of the feature shows how its new Text & Compare feature will report back each thumbnail's "Watch time" as a percentage once it completes its test.
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The feature, also known as A/B Testing, has been YouTubers' top requested feature for a long time for a good reason. A video's thumbnail plays a vital role in attracting viewers to watch videos, making the job of choosing or making the right thumbnail appealing and eye-catching full of pressure and stress.
Make Use Of stated in their report that the YouTube algorithm likes catchy thumbnails, which could contain the "YouTube reaction face," or, simply put, a screenshot of a face with wide eyes, a mouth open, and a shocked or quizzical look. However, not everyone wants such a face in a thumbnail because they're annoying to look at, as YouTubers and audiences noticed.
With this new feature, YouTubers will rely less on third-party tools that fill the market gap that advertise letting users A/B test YouTube thumbnails, such as TubeBuddy, or asking their audience for their preferred thumbnail through polls on Twitter to determine which would work out instead of using a third-party tool.
YouTube Test And Compare Release
YouTube mentioned it is planning to roll out a beta version to a few thousand creators in the coming months while its team is working to make the tool available more broadly starting next year. Unfortunately, the company didn't give an estimate of when it would launch the feature for public use.
The feature's announcement follows YouTube's revival of its "Sort by Oldest" option in the form of an "Oldest" sort button in the channels of select YouTubers, allowing audiences to watch their favorite YouTuber's older videos without having to scroll down for long periods. Whether Google, YouTube's parent company, is still testing it or is having a slow server-side rollout is still unclear.
Related Article: YouTube Revives 'Sort by Oldest' Option on YouTube Channels
