Google has announced the launch of YouTube Shorts, a short video feature on its YouTube app that enables creators to share 15-second videos using their mobile phones. Like Chinese service TikTok and the Reels feature launched by Instagram last month, the new YouTube service allows users to upload short-form videos lasting 15 seconds or less using a new set of creator tools, including a multi-segment camera as well as speed controls and a timer and a countdown feature to easily record hands free. YouTube will also enable creators to accompany the videos with its large library of songs that the video platform says will continue to grow over time.
In addition, YouTube is introducing a new watch experience that lets users easily swipe vertically from one video to the next, in much the same way as TikTok, as well as discovering other similar short videos. The company previously added a new row on the YouTube homepage for watching short videos and the new watch experience will make it it even easier to start watching short-form videos, it said.
The new YouTube Shorts feature will initially be available on Android in India, where TikTok is currently banned, and will expand to iOS and other markets in due course, said the video platform, without specifying a time frame.
