YouTube Introduces Image Carousels, Music And Text Overlays For Creators

YouTube has rolled out a new set of enhancements for image posts, giving creators more ways to engage audiences without producing a full-length video.

Announced via the platform's TeamYouTube blog, the update allows eligible creators to upload image carousels containing up to 10 photos directly through the YouTube mobile app. Viewers can swipe through the images, while creators can now enhance posts with music and text overlays for a more immersive storytelling experience.

The platform has also introduced the ability to add up to 15 seconds of background audio to image posts. Creators can choose from licensed tracks, music available in the YouTube Audio Library, or AI-generated soundtracks created through Dream Track, where the feature is supported.

In addition, creators can overlay text on individual images, making it easier to add context, captions or narrative elements within a carousel.

YouTube noted that image posts will continue to be managed under the Posts tab in YouTube Studio Content and will not appear alongside Videos or Shorts in the primary content dashboard.

The company also clarified its view-counting methodology. Only image posts watched through the Shorts feed will generate view counts, which will be attributed to the Posts content category. Views from surfaces such as the Home feed, Subscriptions, Watch Next or channel pages will not be included in the total.

The new capabilities are rolling out to eligible creators on the YouTube mobile app, with the company indicating that more updates to the image posts format are planned in the future.