YouTube Introduces New Comment Filters and Automatic Highlights for Livestreams

YouTube adds several small but useful features designed to help creators manage interactions and maximize livestream content. Updates include new comment filters, the ability to save filters in the mobile app, automatic highlight creation (which can become Shorts), and improved contextual search for TV. Here is a summary and how to utilize them.

Comment & Reply Filters: Focus on the Latest Responses

YouTube adds a new filter option that makes it easier for creators to find and follow up on important conversations. The main changes:

• The “New Replies to Your Responses” option — shows the latest replies directed at comments you have already answered, so you can continue the discussion from relevant points.
• The “Newest” sorting option — so you always see the most recent comments on each video or clip.

For channels with a large volume of comments, this simple feature helps find missed interaction opportunities and keeps conversations alive.

Save Filters as Default in YouTube Studio Mobile

Previously, only the desktop version could save default filter settings. Now you can also save favorite filters in the YouTube Studio (mobile) app — so every time you open the comment list on your phone, your preferred view appears immediately. This is useful for creators who frequently monitor comments on the go.

Automatic Highlights from Livestream — Shorts Potential Without the Hassle

YouTube introduces an automated process that extracts highlight segments from livestreams and prepares them as short clips you can publish as Shorts. The flow is brief:

1. Livestream ends.
2. YouTube selects several highlight clips from the broadcast.
3. You can preview the short clips on the summary screen after streaming and choose to publish them.

This feature is available in the mobile app and aims to speed up the distribution of livestream highlights into short format — helping promote broadcasts and reach a wider audience with minimal effort.

Contextual Search on Connected TV

YouTube also enhances the viewer experience on big screens (Connected TV). Previously, searches made from the channel page on TV showed results from all of YouTube. Now, contextual search makes relevant results from the currently watched channel appear first — matching this function with the desktop experience and making content discovery on TV more accurate.

Why These Updates Matter for Creators

• Community management efficiency: new filters and the ability to save preferences on mobile speed up moderation and interaction.
• More content to promote: automatic highlights reduce the time cost to create promotional clips from livestreams.
• Improved discovery on TV: contextual search helps audiences find related videos from your channel while watching on big screens.

This week’s YouTube updates are small but strategic—helping creators work faster and extract more value from livestreams. If you regularly do live broadcasts and manage an active community, try enabling and testing these features to see which have the greatest impact on your engagement and content distribution.