YouTube releases ‘video shorts’ and it looks suspiciously like TikTok

The video sharing platform has released a rival to TikTok

Back in 2020, YouTube launched the ‘YouTube Shorts’ feature as a beta into the Indian market.

Following this, ‘Shorts’ launched in the United States in March 2021. YouTube has released over $100 million in funding towards YouTube Shorts, which sparked a global roll out in over 100 countries with curious creators flocking to try out the platforms’ latest feature.

But what is YouTube Shorts?

Chris Jaffe, the VP of Product Management, said, “Shorts is a short-form video experience for anyone who wants to create short, catchy videos using nothing but their mobile phones.” But hang on – does that not just sound like TikTok?

YouTube Shorts has been branded as, ‘a new way to express yourself in 15 seconds or less’. The ‘Shorts’ creation process makes is easy to create short videos which can last up to 60 seconds, similar to the style of TikTok.

‘Shorts’ allows users to create content with an iPhone and upload using the YouTube app. The idea behind shorts was to inspire “higher creation”, and that has been made so much quicker and simpler with the help of ‘shorts’.

The new features of ‘shorts’ include a multi-segment camera which helps to string multiple video clips together, the option to record the video with music, speed control which gives flexibility to be more creative during the process, and a timer which countdown making it easy to record hands free.

From March 2021, new features were added such as in-video text to specific parts of the video, similar to Instagram reels. Audio is also available to use from other creators ‘shorts’.

Views of ‘shorts’ are counted the same as YouTube videos, and subscribers gained from ‘shorts’ contribute towards Creator Awards Program milestones.

Once a viewer taps into a ‘short’, they can then scroll through to view others.

How do I access YouTube Shorts?

To use Shorts, open the YouTube app on your smartphone. When you scroll down you’ll see a ‘Shorts’ section. The ‘Shorts’ button has actually replaced the ‘Explore’ tab at the bottom of the screen.

Then click the middle button (the create tab) on the menu at the bottom of the screen.

Clicking the tab will open a number of options, including “Create a Short.” This will take you to the Shorts creator tool. The tool allows you to use audio from other YouTube videos and over 250 music labels.