YouTube is making Shorts longer
Does that defeat the point of them? We'll let you be the judge.
YouTube created a direct competitor to TikTok and the short-form video content that the platform became famous for all with the Shorts platform. It allows creators to produce snappy and quick videos that are mostly consumed in a vertical format, and it is a prime candidate of how consuming online media is changing yet again. Or is it?
YouTube has unveiled planned changes for Shorts, which will see the platform shifting away from its enforced shorter length. As of October 15, creators will be allowed to post Shorts videos that are up to three minutes long, begging the question if they can really be classified as "short" anymore.
Speaking about the change, YouTube adds, "This was a top requested feature by creators, so we're excited to give you more flexibility to tell your story. This change applies to videos that are square or taller in aspect ratio, and won't affect any videos you uploaded before October 15. And we'll be working to improve recommendations for longer Shorts in the coming months."
There are some other changes planned too, including offering Shorts templates to use, more ways to remix your videos through YouTube's full clips system, the introduction of Google DeepMind's video generation tool Veo to let creators use AI to 'enhance' their content, and more.
While it's not explicitly mentioned, no doubt this lengthier Shorts format is just a step towards YouTube being able to introduce ads to the more concise video format.
What do you think about Shorts getting longer?
