A number of enhancements to YouTube Shorts, its platform for short videos, were revealed by the company on Thursday. One of these is that content producers can post videos that are no longer than three minutes. According to the firm, new layouts, an updated Shorts player, and a new Shorts trends page for mobile are also being added.
When all the upgrades are combined, YouTube will be able to more effectively compete with TikTok, which already permits longer videos (10 minutes when recording, or 60 minutes when posted), and makes it simple for users to follow trends.
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According to YouTube, the new Shorts player is made to simplify the appearance of these little films and highlight the content creators' work by putting it at the forefront of the user interface. It does this by turning the interaction buttons (e.g., comment, share, etc.) on the right side of the screen into outlined icons instead of those filled with white, allowing viewers to see more of the video that would have otherwise been hidden.
In addition, the creator’s name, description, and sound information have been more compressed to take up less space at the bottom of the screen. Unfortunately, the latter change means the video description is truncated, requiring users to click the “more” button to read the full text.
Meanwhile, the addition of templates will allow creators and other YouTube users to more quickly jump on trends. This is an area where TikTok today excels with CapCut, which is designed to work with the short video app. From any TikTok video created with a CapCut template, users can hop directly into CapCut’s app to participate in the trend by modifying the template with their own content.
Now YouTube is doing something similar, but without a separate app.
Instead, Shorts users will be able to tap a “Remix” option on a Short, then select “Use this template” to make their own video. In a few months, YouTube says that users will also be able to tap into its content directly from the Shorts camera, which will make it even easier to remix clips from their favorite videos or music videos, or pull multiple clips from across YouTube.
Related to trends, Shorts on mobile will introduce a new page for keeping up with the latest, allowing users to discover the popular trends in their own country for inspiration. This differentiates YouTube from TikTok, which focuses more on having users discover trends simply by browsing their For You feed or by tapping on search. However, TikTok removed its popular Discover page, which had previously showcased what was hot on the app at the moment. Instead of Discover, TikTok rolled out a Friends tab, hoping to make the app more of a social network.
Still, TikTok’s global nature allows users to pick up on trends from other countries, making them their own, in addition to finding inspiration from videos popular worldwide. The most recent example is baby hippo, Moo Deng, which was a large enough sensation to become the subject of a skit on SNL.
YouTube says it will “soon” allow users to preview what people are saying in the comments directly from the Shorts feed — a change that could encourage more interaction with videos and that could prompt creators to publish “rage bait” — videos designed to get a reaction — in the hopes of increasing engagement.
Users will be able to adjust how much they wish to see Shorts in their personal feeds thanks to a final modification. A new option called "Show fewer Shorts" can be found in the upper right section of the Shorts grid in the Home feed. To access it, click the three dots menu. YouTube claims that consumers will only "temporarily" see fewer Shorts as a result of this. The length of the pause was not specified by the corporation, though.
Creators will be able to utilize Google DeepMind's Veo AI model, which creates videos, for YouTube Shorts thanks to a previously announced update. According to YouTube, this update is now anticipated for later this year and will enable creators to edit the background of their videos or post standalone segments.