San Bruno, California, April 14, 2026, 11:13 AM PDT
YouTube is changing how ads run in livestreams, saying it will hold back breaks for all viewers when chat activity hits a peak and give paying fans temporary ad-free windows after they buy Super Chats, Super Stickers or gifts. The change comes in a wider batch of live-streaming tools aimed at lifting engagement and creator revenue.
The timing matters. Live video is built around the moment, and an ad can cut right through the point where a creator is reacting to a paying fan or chat is moving fastest. Barbara Macdonald, YouTube’s product manager for Live, said the aim was to “protect that collective vibe,” adding that the broader ad holdback works on channels with automatic ads turned on. Blog
Super Chat and Super Stickers are paid live-chat features: viewers buy them to make a message or animated image stand out in the feed. YouTube said viewers who make one of those purchases, or buy a gift, will get a personal ad-free window right after paying so they do not miss the creator’s response.
The company paired that with a broader push on gifts, its virtual tipping system. Help pages say viewers can send gifts on eligible vertical and horizontal live streams, paying with Jewels, YouTube’s in-app currency, while creators earn Rubies from those purchases; eligible creator markets include Australia, Canada, Indonesia, New Zealand, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and the United States.
YouTube is also widening its dual-format live setup. Support pages say creators can stream in horizontal and vertical formats at the same time, with the same live chat shown to both audiences, and some eligible creators can use a second stream key for the vertical feed as third-party encoder support rolls out.
That keeps YouTube in the thick of a live-video race with Twitch and TikTok. Twitch’s Ads Manager says creators can remove pre-roll ads for an hour by running at least three minutes of mid-roll ads per hour, while TikTok says LIVE Gifts let viewers send virtual gifts during broadcasts, giving both rivals established ways to mix fan spending with advertising.
The live-stream push fits a broader strategy inside YouTube. CEO Neal Mohan wrote in January that the platform had been No. 1 in U.S. streaming watch time for nearly three years, citing Nielsen, and said creators are “the new prime time” as the company leans harder into TV screens and creator-led programming. Blog
But the rollout is not complete. YouTube’s creator update page says the dual-format feature is still rolling out to all creators, with more cropping options and third-party encoder compatibility for vertical layouts still to come, which could leave part of the creator base waiting for the fuller setup.
