YouTube is unveiling a new tool to U.S. creators this week — the ability to create and publish TikTok-style videos and content. YouTube Shorts had already launched (in beta) in the U.S. earlier this year, following a trial run in India. Now, creators will have the ability to shoot and edit their own Shorts directly through YouTube's platform.
TikTok has been the leading social media platform when it comes to short-form video creation, boasting nearly a billion active monthly users globally. The success has spawned countless imitations, with other platforms trying their hand at TikTok's lucrative concept. Snapchat rolled out Spotlight, Instagram launched Reels, and even Twitter made its own mark with the unveiling of Fleets. YouTube Shorts has been billed as the best challenger to TikTok and, with these new tools, it may finally be ready to assume that role.
YouTube's own Creator Insider channel has announced that all U.S. creators will have access to the YouTube Shorts camera within the next week. Just as importantly, new features added to the Shorts camera will allow creators to create videos up to 60 seconds long, mirroring the video length that TikTok has made immensely popular. The Shorts camera will also have new filters and color correction tools, with the YouTube Creator team promising even more filters and effects in the next year. Finally, captions will automatically be added to YouTube Shorts that creators make, though they will have the option to swap in manual captions if they wish.
With New Tools, YouTube Hopes To DeThrone TikTok
Several other creator-focused features were announced in the video, such as the addition of the Shorts tab to the mobile app experience to make it easier for users to find and enjoy the content that creators are putting out. YouTube is also adding the ability for users to change their profile name and picture on YouTube without having it affect their Google account. And, YouTube Kids is expanding to offer availability in 107 countries and territories.
The strategy here is clear. YouTube is already the most popular video-sharing platform on the planet overall, with more than two billion active users visiting the site each month. What the platform has to do now is offer creators a better, more efficient way to create content than TikTok does. If YouTube can accomplish that while potentially providing creators with access to a larger audience than TikTok is currently capable of, then Shorts may actually be the TikTok-killer it was projected to be.
It's a tall order, but there is evidence that Shorts is up to the task. In February, YouTube reported that the beta version of its Shorts player was racking up more than 3.5 billion daily views. And while Shorts that are recorded using content from the YouTube music library will still be limited to 15 seconds, implementing the option to record for up to a minute with other types of content will likely be an incredibly useful feature for creators. So, while YouTube Shorts hasn't yet surpassed TikTok, the platform's short video empire finally has some legitimate competition.
Source: YouTube