Tessera

New this week: ▶ YouTube Shorts custom thumbnails ▶ YouTube Community-only posts & quote posts ▶ Substack scans for AI-generated content ▶ Get a Facebook Verified badge to show you are human ▶ Change the music on a published Instagram post

Creator Weekly: Shorts Thumbnails, Substack AI Scans, Facebook Verified

New: Add custom YouTube Shorts thumbnails, YouTube Community updates, scan writing on Substack for AI, show you're human with Facebook Verified.

peggyktc.com

Substack@substack.com · 2w ago

Substack sort-of addresses writer concerns about the new AI scanning tool. "Based on your comments, we made a change yesterday so that publishers can disable scanning on a post-by-post basis without having to scan the post first or interact with Pangram at all." But there will be false positives.

Earlier this week, we introduced a feature that lets you scan posts, replies, and comments on the Substack app to see an estimate of how much was written by a human, or with AI assistance. Writers had thoughts. Read the roundup of reactions: on.substack.com/p/how-write...

Woot! Custom thumbnails for Shorts! * On desktop YouTube Studio * Channel is in the YouTube Partner Program * Upload a custom thumb or pick a frame * 3:2 is the ideal proportions * No A/B testing youtube.com/shorts/Zgyy7...

New! Fully Custom Thumbnails for Shorts!

YouTube video by Creator Insider

youtube.com

YouTube is launching one month free Membership trials for eligible channels and “select qualified viewers”. The hope is that after a free trial the viewer chooses to pay for Membership. Creators can opt out (or back in) on the Membership tab in YouTube Studio. More info:

New! Channel Membership Trials

Memberships are a powerful way for creators to deepen community and earn revenue directly from fans in an often more reliable, predictable way. But getting viewers to see the value of a membership can be a challenge. To help with this, YouTube is launching a promotion that will offer select, qualif

youtube.com

404 Media@404media.co · 2w ago

Patreon laid off 20% of its workforce. It sounds like this is because of AI (although they are reassuring creators that AI can't replace human creativity).

In an internal email shared with creators, CEO Jack Conte wrote that AI doesn’t replace human creativity — but it does affect how the company operates.

YouTube Community Updates For Creators: * Community-only posts (not on Posts tab) * More moderation options in YouTube Studio * Quick mod assignments For fans: * Quote creator posts * Access Communities from more places * New notifications of creator interactions http://youtube.com/p...

New Communities updates—including Community-only posts, the ability for viewers to quote creator posts, Communities on YouTube Music, and easier moderation tools—are officially here! Since we introduced Communities last year, we’ve loved seeing you all build deeper bonds and spark new conversations. We’re focused on making Communities easier to manage for creators and more accessible for fans. Here's a snapshot of what’s rolling out now:

👥 What's new for fans:

- Quote creator posts: React to a creator's post by quoting it directly into a new post on the creator’s Community to start a discussion with other fans
- New ways to discover and access Communities: Jump straight into a Community feed from more places across YouTube–including your mobile Search results and a new Spotlight Card directly inside the YouTube Music mobile app.
- New notifications: Get alerts when a creator interacts with your updates, like when they pin your post or give it a creator heart.

Google now lets you add a selfie video to help you sign into your account. If you only have a single device (like your phone), set this up to make sure you can still sign in if your device is lost. Set it up: g.co/signin-selfie Manage your selfie videos: myaccount.google.com/video-verifi...

Google Sign-in Selfie setup page
Add a selfie, just in case
Saving a selfie video can help you get into your Google Account if you have trouble signing in.
Take a short video of your face.
You'll need to take a selfie video where you show different angles of your face. Recording this selfie video will take only a few moments.

Manage your selfie videos in your Google Account security settings.
The myaccount.google.com/video-verification page lets you delete any selfie video in your account, including selfie for sign in, video for YouTube verification for feature access, and selfie and voice recording for Gemini avatars.

Cartoon Art Museum@cartoonart.bsky.social · 4w ago

This is an amazing opportunity to get an original piece of art and support the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco. www.cartoonart.org/calendar/202...

Cartoon Art Museum Sketch-a-thon @ Home — Cartoon Art Museum

The Cartoon Art Museum Sketch-a-thon @ Home is back! Dozens of talented artists will volunteer their time and talents to the Cartoon Art Museum’s annual Sketch-A-Thon fundraising event to draw ske...

cartoonart.org

Can't make it to San Diego Comic-Con? No worries -- our upcoming Sketch-A-Thon @ Home fundraiser has you covered. Order an original work from one of our guest artists and have it sent to you. Details: cartoonart.org/calendar/2026/7/comic-con-sketchathon #comiccon #nonprofit #fundraiser #artmuseum

a blank comics page for the Cartoon Art Museum's Sketch-A-Thon @ Home fundraiser

Michael Damian Thomas@michaeldthomas.bsky.social · 2w ago

#UncannyAMA How do you choose cover artists? Do you look for work that matches a story's vibe?

I am doing an UNCANNY MAGAZINE KICKSTARTER AMA today! Please feel free to ask me questions here or at #UncannyAMA! This is especially so I can answer questions about AI submissions! www.kickstarter.com/projects/unc...

Barry Schwartz @rustybrick.com · 2w ago

Substack partnered with AI-generated writing detection tool Pangram: * Text longer than 100 words can be scanned to determine how much is human written * Creators can scan draft posts, “report and remove any scans on your own work that you believe are mistaken.” * Web & iOS (Android soon)

Demo of Substack AI scanning tool.
It shows a post in the Substack app.
Click the menu to open Options, which includes "Scan for AI text".
It shows the result for the post (in this case "Fully Human-Written")

So this is why Google came out with that billions of clicks from AI features - the NY Times was working on a piece named "Google Is Building an A.I. Fence Around the Internet It Once Championed" - Google was trying to get ahead of it www.seroundtable.com/google-ai-se...

Google Says It Sends Billions Of Clicks To Web Through AI Search

Nick Fox, Google's head of search, said on Friday that Google's AI Mode and AI Overviews - its AI search features - send billions of clicks to websites every week. He said Google Search overall is st...

seroundtable.com

Techmeme@techmeme.com · 2w ago

Google's AI Search is endangering the open web; Cloudflare: between June 2025 and April 2026, human traffic to sites of businesses in many industries fell ~40% (Kate Conger/New York Times) Main Link | Techmeme Permalink

Nina Trankova @ninatrankova.com · 2w ago

Thanks to everyone who subscribed to www.youtube.com/@oneboard! Check us out for weekly tech tips live. 📱💻✨

🪎🏆🎬 Short Form Video Content. New vertical short video with Gemini NotebookL; Gemini Omni into Google Vids. 😀💪🏻 Two use cases demos, Slide decks and resources. @peggyk.bsky.social @imagewildlife.bsky.social #TechTopic #Podcast #YouTube #3Tips10Min news.oneboard.network/2026/07/next...

New this week: ▶ YouTube clarifies Inauthentic Content monetization policy ▶ Create Twitch Clips with your voice ▶ Import your own fonts into Edits ▶ Beehiiv launches Communities ▶ Google Image Search gets Pinterest-like redesign www.peggyktc.com/202...

"Streamlined" YouTube Studio test: * Analytics renamed Insights * Updated UI * Click a chart to open Advanced Mode * Simplified date ranges * AI Insight Cards: Channel summary, Content patterns, Audience loyalty, Video summary * Trends tab > Research tab More info support.google.com/y...

Updated YouTube monetization policy description replaces "Inauthentic Content" with * Generic or Repetitive Content * Added Unsatisfying or Offputting Content * AI Personas for Sensitive Topics www.peggyktc.com/2026/07/yout...

YouTube Clarifies Inauthentic Content Monetization Policy

News, updates and tips for video creators, bloggers, web publishers, and more.

peggyktc.com

Google Image Search turns more Pinterest-like with "dynamic, immersive gallery of images ... updated in real time and intelligently tailored to your unique interests." Your Collections appear as tabs above the main gallery. It appears image source details are less visible. blog.google/products...

The new Google Image Search Results, showing the For You and Collections tabs at the top. Images have no details about the source website displayed.

New this week ▶ YouTube Partners can create Shows ▶ YouTube Creator Music removing paid licenses ▶ Meta Muse Image Instagram profile prompt backlash ▶ Google Search Console social post properties (inc YouTube) ▶ Substack authors can offer paid perks & import podcasts

Creator Weekly: YouTube Shows, Meta Muse Image Backlash, Search Console social profiles

New: YouTube Partners can create shows, Meta Muse Image Instagram use backlash, Google Search Console YouTube and social profiles and more.

peggyktc.com

That was fast! Meta has removed a feature launched earlier this week that let users generate images in Meta AI by @-mentioning public Instagram accounts. If you didn't want people generating images based on your photos, you could opt out (if you could find the setting). variety.com/2026/biz/new...

Meta Suspends AI Image Feature After Days of Backlash

Meta said on Friday it would discontinue an AI feature that allowed users to generate images using public Instagram accounts.

variety.com

Google Photos Video Remix uses Gemini Omni to generate shareable clips. * Replace background, add lighting effects or art style effects * Requires AI Plus, Pro or Ultra subscription * Remix up to 10 seconds from under 60 second video * Limited countries blog.google/products-and...

Create shareable video clips in seconds with Video Remix in Google Photos.

With Video Remix in Google Photos, you can transform ordinary videos into share-worthy moments in just a few taps.

blog.google