YouTube’s looking to provide channel managers with more tools to help grow their in-app communities, including updated audience engagement insights, and improved markers of interaction opportunities in-stream.
First off, YouTube’s giving channel managers more insights into audience engagement, including expanded data on “New” and “Returning” viewers.

As you can see in this example, YouTube will now give you more specific data on viewer behavior, with updated categorization of each video’s audience.
As per YouTube:
“We’re introducing deeper audience insights to help creators understand their viewers beyond just ‘New’ and ‘Returning.’ Creators will now be able to see granular segmentation based on long-term viewer behavior, including ‘New’, ‘Casual,’ and ‘Regular’ viewers. The goal is to help creators build better content strategies and grow their audience.”
Essentially, the “Returning” viewers metric is being replaced with more detailed categories, including “Casual” and “Regular” viewers.
“Casual viewers are those who’ve been watching occasionally for a while, specifically between one and five months in the last year. Regular viewers are those who’ve been watching more consistently, specifically for six or more months in the last twelve months.”
The additional categories will provide more insight into viewer engagement trends, and help you get a better understanding of audience behaviors, and your broader community-building efforts.
So if you’re looking to build your YouTube community, and boost those “Regular” viewer stats, you’ll now have more data to refer to when strategizing your output with that goal in mind.
On that front, YouTube recommends that channel managers utilize community-building options, like Community Posts, to further engage your audience.
YouTube says that posts, as well as responding to viewer comments, can help to enhance connection, while exclusive events, including live-streams, can further enhance those efforts.
However you choose to go about it, these updated data points will provide more insight for you to build your strategy around, and ensure that you’re boosting the right metrics for your goals.
YouTube says that its updated audience insights are being rolled out to all creators globally from today.
YouTube’s also expanding access to its “Most relevant” comment filter, which highlights key engagement opportunities in the app.

As you can see in this example, using the “Most relevant” filter, creators will be able to quickly find key opportunities, like questions from viewers.
YouTube originally announced the option late last year, and it’s now expanding access to all creators, providing another community-building opportunity.
YouTube’s also expanding access to its live-stream leaderboard, which displays the most engaged viewers on each live-stream (which it began testing earlier this month), while YouTube Premium members in the U.S. can now access the platform’s latest AI discovery elements, which provide additional, auto-generated context on certain queries.

“When a premium user searches for queries related to shopping, places, or things to do in a specific location, the carousel will populate relevant videos with brief topic descriptions on the results page. The goal is to help users quickly discover videos and topics related to their query, and provides a new way for creators to be discovered by viewers who might not have found them otherwise.”
Both of these features were announced recently, but are now being expanded to more users.
Some handy updates, primarily focused on growing your YouTube audience, and maximizing connection with your viewers.