YouTube is expanding its “Hype” program with a new feature that turns viewers into active promoters, while also making it easier for paying subscribers to find the exclusive content they’ve actually paid for. 

For those unfamiliar, the Hype program lets viewers allocate “Hype points” to eligible videos from smaller creators. Videos with more Hype get boosted in YouTube’s systems, theoretically giving emerging creators more visibility in an algorithm that tends to favor established channels.

Now YouTube is adding a social layer: if you’ve hyped a video, you can share it as a public post on your own channel’s community tab. You’re not just giving the video algorithmic points, you’re putting your own audience behind it. It’s word-of-mouth marketing meets platform mechanics. Traditional platform discovery flows one way: algorithm surfaces content to users. But Hype creates a multi-directional system where enthusiastic viewers can actively reshape what gets attention and now amplify it through their own networks. 

This especially matters for creators in that frustrating middle zone, past the “starting from zero” phase but not yet large enough to reliably surface in recommendations. They have some audience, but need mechanisms to break through to broader visibility. Hype essentially crowdsources that breakthrough moment. If enough people spend points and post about your content, you might jump the algorithmic queue.

Worth noting: YouTube says Hype is expanding to more regions and coming to desktop eventually.

In the meantime, you can read more here.