YouTube brings custom thumbnails and AI tool to Shorts

YouTube is rolling out custom thumbnail support for Shorts, giving creators more control over how their videos appear on the platform.

With the update, creators can toss in custom thumbnails, the same way they already do for regular YouTube videos. YouTube suggests going for images that are 3840 × 2160 pixels, keep a 16:9 aspect ratio, and stick to JPG, PNG, or GIF file formats, for best results.

Also, the platform rolled out Ask Studio, which is AI-powered and it sort of recommends thumbnail styles based on the video’s transcript plus what’s actually in the content. Creators can produce thumbnails and then ask for tweaks before they settle on the one they want.

YouTube additionally reminds everyone that thumbnails have to respect its Community Guidelines. If a creator breaks those rules, the thumbnail can get removed, there might be temporary limits on uploads, or other penalties can show up on the account.