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What you need to know
- Google announced a slew of upgrades to YouTube and YouTube Music last week, including support for custom playlist thumbnails.
- Previously, users could ask generative AI to create a thumbnail for them, but could not upload their own.
- Now, users are starting to see the feature appear in the YouTube Music web player after verifying their phone number. Mobile app support seems to be coming later.
YouTube and YouTube Music are getting a few new features this month, and a big one is starting to roll out: custom playlist thumbnails. YouTube Music is a formidable competitor to Apple Music and Spotify, especially if you already pay for YouTube Premium. However, it sometimes lacks core features that we take for granted in other music streaming apps. Now, YouTube Music is catching up to its competition by letting users upload their own photos and artwork as playlist thumbnails.
The feature is appearing widely for YouTube Music users on the platform’s web player, found at music.youtube.com. The rollout was first spotted by 9to5Google, and it appears to be limited to the YouTube Music web client for the time being. Additionally, YouTube seems to be requiring users to verify their phone numbers before uploading photos. If you’re not seeing the option for custom thumbnails, check that your phone is verified.
After opening a playlist, you can tap on the pencil icon to select a photo from your phone, tablet, or computer. The web client offers a built-in cropping tool, allowing you to resize your custom image to fit the playlist’s square aspect ratio. After that, you’re all set — but you can tap the pencil icon and select Remove custom image to revert your changes at any time.
Other music streaming services, like Apple Music and Spotify, have offered custom playlist thumbnails for quite a while, allowing users to personalize their playlists as they see fit. The custom playlist thumbnails are perhaps more useful to YouTube Music subscribers, but they’re also available on YouTube, as Google showcases in the video below.
Oddly enough, YouTube has offered a way for users to personalize their playlist thumbnails since 2023, but it has been limited to AI-generated artwork. Being that playlists are always made with a personal touch, using your own photos feels like a natural choice.
Luckily, YouTube Music subscribers don’t have to feel envious of other streaming services with the emergence of custom playlist thumbnails on the platform. Next, we’ll be keeping our eye out to see if the feature makes its way to the YouTube Music mobile app, or if there are any limitations.