Podcasting on YouTube: What do we need to know?

Following on from YouTube‘s announcement of some new cutting-edge tools and features for podcasters in 2026, The Headliner podcast has taken a deep dive into what it all means for creators, breaking it all down into easily-digestible pieces.

The changes include:

New AI tools for Podcasting: YouTube is set to release a series of tools designed to help podcasters edit, generate video, and create clips (for YouTube).

Expanded Thumbnail Testing: Enables podcasters to test up to three thumbnails on YouTube uploads. YouTube conducts all the tests and then picks the winner for you.

Title testing: Similar to thumbnail testing, podcasters will be able to test up to three titles in YouTube Studio.

The Headliner says adding a video component is a great way to help people discover you podcast:

“Video doesn’t have to mean a high-budget, multi-camera studio production. Simple audiograms or low-tech webcam recordings are perfectly viable solutions for podcasting on YouTube.”

Other suggestions including engaging your audience by encouraging people to interact with your videos and community posts, creating and testing thumbnails and adding chapters:

 “Like a book, chapters help organise and break up content. Adding chapters helps keep viewers interested, engaged, and also adds some extra indexable content!”