On Thursday, YouTube announced that they were releasing YouTube Shorts beta to the United States. Shorts is a “short-form video experience,” much like TikTok.
Shorts will feature a multi-segment camera to string multiple video clips together, the ability to record with music, control speed settings, and more. Initially debuting in India, the U.S. beta has additional features like adding text to specific points in your video. According to the blog post, you’ll also have the ability to sample audio from other Shorts to “remix it into your own creation.”
“YouTube made it so that a whole generation of people using cameras and computers and video editing software could practice their craft and build an audience,” product lead for YouTube Shorts Todd Sherman said to CNN Business. “That story is very similar to the story of what we’re doing with Shorts once again, except now it’s all based on the phone and what you can get done inside of a phone.”
YouTube partnered with more than 250 publishers and labels, like Universal Music Group, Sony, and 300 Entertainment, to name a few, to ensure creators have millions of songs they can use in their videos. YouTube says that as Shorts expands, so will its catalog.
The platform will add a Shorts tab on its mobile platform and a row on its homepage so users can easily find the videos. YouTube said it would also add a feature on watches that will allow the user to swipe from one video to the next.
YouTube will roll out the new feature to everyone in the U.S. over the coming weeks.
