It has emerged that YouTube has begun testing bringing in the ability to create short-form videos. As reported by Android Police, the lure of TikTok’s success has permeated into much of social media and YouTube is no different.
Reports the YouTube might move into the short-form videos area first emerged in January. This focused around interest in a twitch-like sharing concept where streamers could promote short sections of their content with much more ease.
As mentioned other social media platforms have pushed further into TikTok-style short-form content. Instagram Reels is an obvious example of this.
However, in this instance, Instagram feels they are yet to perfect the feature. The company head said they would likely make changes in the near future to try and give creators more options to make better content.
YouTube may run into similar issues with its new short-form features. Copying TikTok’s style is fine but without making the feature unique and with enough freedom it could quickly become unpopular.
YouTube begins testing short-form video content features
YouTube now lets a select few users create 15-second Shorts without leaving the current screen. Using a new prominent create button located between the Share and Download buttons, creators can shoot a video with the currently playing music.
Creators can also import videos from their gallery overlaying the music that’s playing. After the recording is complete creators do have a few options to make some edits.
These allow them to adjust exactly which part of the music is used for the Shorts. It also is possible to change the song and then select one from a catalogue provided within the app. Annotations and text and also be added in post.
Once the video is complete, creators can then publish to their channel using the same workflow. You can also save your Short to access then publish later if you so wish.
It looks as if Shorts is only available to a select few creators in India, and not globally at this time. This is likely part of a limited initial test to assess functionality as well as popularity. The feature is not available for all music videos, this is not surprising and likely down to licensing restrictions.
If successful we could begin to see this roll out over the year. However, we have no indication of how what timelines YouTube are working on. As a result we will have to keep our ears to the ground for any emerging information on this one.