YouTube has Its Own TikTok Thing Called YouTube Shorts

YouTube announced YouTube Shorts this week, its answer to the immense popularity of TikTok. Designed for folks to create fun, short videos all on their smartphone, YouTube says videos will be limited to 15 seconds and there will be plenty of editing options for all you content creators.

Unfortunately for us in the US, the early beta of Shorts will be limited to India, which will include a handful of tools for users to test out. YouTube details that, “We’ll continue to add more features and expand to more countries in the coming months as we learn from you and listen to your feedback.”

If you aren’t into TikTok, it’s decently fun. People can use music or original audio to create videos, everything from funny to educational. There’s no shortage of what’s available, and like Instagram or Twitter, anyone can sign up and start creating.

There are three main areas that YouTube wanted to focus on.

• Create: Creation is at the core of short-form video, and we want to make it easy and fun to create Shorts. We’re starting to test just a few new tools for creators and artists with our early beta in India:
  • A multi-segment camera to string multiple video clips together,
  • The option to record with music from a large library of songs that will continue to grow,
  • Speed controls that give you the flexibility to be creative in your performance,
  • And a timer and countdown to easily record, hands-free.

Sounds like fun. We’ll let you know as soon as it’s available for US users.

// YouTube