YouTube has announced a series of significant updates to its short-form video platform, YouTube Shorts, aimed at enhancing user experience and better competing with TikTok.
The new features include an increase in video length to three minutes, an updated Shorts player, templates for easier content creation, and a new trends page on mobile devices.
These changes come as YouTube seeks to attract creators and viewers away from TikTok, which already allows videos of up to 10 minutes when recording and 60 minutes for uploads, making it easy for users to engage with trends.
The revamped Shorts player is designed to streamline the viewing experience, placing creators’ content front and center. Interaction buttons, such as comment and share, have been transformed into outlined icons on the right side of the screen, allowing for more visibility of the video itself.
Additionally, the creator’s name, description, and sound information have been condensed at the bottom, though this change results in truncated descriptions that require users to click “more” to view the full text.
In a move to facilitate trend participation, YouTube is introducing templates that allow users to quickly remix popular content. Creators can tap a “Remix” option on a Short and select “Use this template” to create their own videos. In the coming months, users will also be able to access content directly from the Shorts camera, enabling them to remix clips from their favorite videos or music.
YouTube is also launching a dedicated trends page on mobile, helping users discover popular trends in their country for inspiration. This feature differentiates YouTube from TikTok, which focuses on trend discovery through its For You feed. While TikTok has shifted its focus to a Friends tab, YouTube aims to provide users with localized trend insights.
Additionally, YouTube plans to introduce a feature that will allow users to preview comments directly from the Shorts feed, potentially boosting engagement. A new customization option will also enable users to control the amount of Shorts they see in their feeds through a “Show fewer Shorts” feature, although this will only provide a temporary reduction.
Finally, YouTube has plans to integrate Google DeepMind’s AI video generation model, Veo, into Shorts later this year. This update will enable creators to alter video backgrounds and publish standalone clips, further enhancing the creative possibilities for content on the platform.
