Users can stitch multiple short videos together and adjust the speed of the images. It is also possible to add music, filters and subtitles. YouTube Shorts was released last September in India, a country where TikTok is not allowed. This was followed by 26 countries, including the US. The rollout will start today in all countries where YouTube is available, including the Netherlands. The rollout will take a few days and should be completed on Wednesday for all Dutch users. The YouTube Shorts could already be viewed in the app, but now they can also be made.
The YouTube Shorts videos can be viewed via a dedicated section on the YouTube site and in the app. If you want to make a movie yourself, you can use popular music tracks. For this, the company has signed contracts with more than 250 music labels, including Universal, Sony and Warner Music. You can also reuse the audio from other YouTube videos, so that you can make a parody or playback of an existing video. YouTubers can indicate themselves whether their audio may be reused.
You can create and share Shorts videos from your phone, with a maximum length of 1 minute. The comparison with TikTok is immediately obvious. This service now has 1 billion active users and became a worldwide hype thanks to the short smartphone videos. YouTube Shorts are similar, where you can quickly add music and effects. Gradually more filters will become available. “This is just the beginning,” said Todd Sherman, YouTube Shorts global product manager. Just like with TikTok, you can easily find multiple videos for a popular music track. Another similarity is that you can scroll vertically through videos. Another similar service is Instagram Reels, from the Facebook group. YouTube uses algorithms to predict what content you like.
You have the following with YouTube Shorts capabilities:
- Record clips of up to 60 seconds with the Shorts camera.
- Squeeze multiple segments.
- Record or add music from the available range.
- Adjust the speed of the videos.
- Automatically add captions to Shorts.
- Add filters.
< p>There is a support page explaining how the new feature works.
YouTube says there are currently 6.5 billion views per day for the Shorts. To ensure that there is more interesting content, a special fund has been set up that pays out $84 million to ‘creators’. They are paid based on numbers of viewers and interactions. Other platforms are also funding popular ‘creators’ on board.