YouTube has caved to the calls from social influencers who like to create long-form vertical videos as it extends its Shorts video format from one minute to three.
Despite being home to the internet’s video library, YouTube was the last of the big three to adopt its own vertical video platform back in 2021. However, as YouTube Shorts continue to grow in popularity, the company is looking to give its creators even more flexibility in the content that’s published from the platform that now includes:
- Longer Shorts, more of you. Starting on October 15, you can upload Shorts up to 3 minutes long. This was a top requested feature by creators, so we’re excited to give you more flexibility to tell your story. This change applies to videos that are square or taller in aspect ratio and won’t affect any videos you uploaded before October 15. And we’ll be working to improve recommendations for longer Shorts in the coming months.
- Recent updates to the player streamline its look, allowing creators’ content to take center stage and viewers to focus on the content they love.
Making creation easier and more fun
- See a Short you like? Now you can easily recreate the magic with templates! Jump on the latest trends, match your clips to the hottest sounds, and add your own unique flair. You can try templates by tapping “Remix” on a Short that inspires you and select “Use this template” to give your own spin.
- Unleash the full power of YouTube in your Shorts! In the coming months, you’ll be able to tap into the vast universe of YouTube content right from your Shorts camera, making it easier to remix clips from your favorite videos, music videos, and more. You’ll even be able to pull from multiple clips across YouTube.
- A few weeks ago, we told you that Google DeepMind’s most capable model for generating video, Veo, is coming to YouTube Shorts. Creators will be able to bring their ideas to life with even more extraordinary video backgrounds and standalone video clips, making your Shorts even dreamier later this year.
Helping the community engage more deeply
- Stay on Top of Trends! Never miss a beat with the new Shorts trends page on mobile. Discover what’s hot in your country, get inspired and jump into the trend!
- Want to get a taste of the conversation? You will soon be able to get a preview of what people are saying in comments right from the Shorts feed, even before you jump into the comments feed.
Giving you more options to customize your feed
- We also want to make sure you can customize your YouTube experience based on your preferences, so we’ll introduce an option to “Show fewer Shorts”. You can choose this setting by clicking on the three dot menu in the upper right of any Shorts grid in your Home feed and we’ll temporarily show you fewer Shorts in your Home feed.
YouTube is going all in on its Shorts feature which feels like a natural progression for the platform. The question now becomes, do people who have history and a content library on Instagram or TikTok want to expend the energy to yet another platform in the relatively late period in vertical video creation timeline?
For YouTube’s part, they seemed poised to offer a more polished Shorts experience than its current competitors, and that might just be enough for some new content creators to consider starting on its platform and export out to others.
