Short-form content is not new, but few platforms have made it a little bigger than TikTok. Taking advantage of this growing trend, competitors have sprung up in numbers and scrambled existing platforms like Instagram to adapt. After experimenting with Shorts (60-second vertical videos) in India, YouTube is now making the feature available to US users.
The announcement was made a few weeks ago by Neal Mohan, YouTube CPO, in a blog post outlining YouTube’s plans for the year. Shorts have gained a lot of momentum in India and are responsible for over 3.5 billion daily views worldwide – an impressive number considering that so far they have only been officially available to Indian creators.
A beta version of Shorts will be visible in carousels on the home stream and the recommended video section, as seen below.
The short-form video editing tool is not as feature-rich as TikTok, but it does have some basic features, including speed control, music, and a hands-free shooting timer. YouTube is constantly experimenting with new ways to make content easier to upload and upload – it recently got a Create button right below the video player and replaced the Chromecast icon in the top bar of the app with Shorts -button.
