YouTube has announced an expansion of its comment translation tools, along with broader access to Smart Replies, its streamlined, template response option, which makes it easier to quickly engage with viewers in the app.

First off, on comment translations - last September, YouTube launched the ability to translate comments within the app, via Google Translate integration, making it easier to understand more types of comments in-stream.

YouTube says that this has been a very popular addition, and based on this, it’s now adding comment translations to Studio Mobile as well, providing another way to engage with comments that are posted in another language.

That could enable new types of interactions, with more viewers from around the world. Google Translate, of course, is not 100% accurate, but it is accurate enough to provide a means to understand and engage in the app.

YouTube’s also expanding its ‘Smart Replies’ experiment, which provides comment suggestions when replying to viewers in-stream.

As you can see here, much like the message reply options that are now available in various apps, YouTube’s Smart Replies give you one-tap response options based on the user comment and the most commonly used creator replies across the app.

Smart Replies have been available to some users for a while, but now, YouTube is making them available to all creators in the main app, while it’s also launching a new experiment of Smart Replies on Studio Mobile too.

I’m not sure that these generic templates are always helpful, but you can edit them before sending - and for those running a bigger channel, with a lot of replies, it could help to simplify the process, and facilitate more engagement.

Finally, YouTube’s also moving playlists into the ‘Content tab’, while you’ll also now use now the ‘Create’ button in the top-right corner to build playlists.

That probably won’t have any major impact, but it’s another functional note, based on YouTube’s systematic updates.

More ways to engage in YouTube, faster. They won’t be for everyone, but there could be some specific, valuable use cases for these updates.