Last September, we announced that we are building YouTube Shorts, a short-form video experience for anyone who wants to create short, catchy videos using nothing but their mobile phones.
Since introducing our initial beta in India, we’ve already started to see creators having fun with Shorts, and the number of Indian channels using our creation tools has more than tripled since the beginning of December alone. People are also watching more and more Shorts around the globe – the YouTube Shorts player has now surpassed 6.5 billion daily views globally.
Starting today and over the next several weeks, we’ll gradually expand our Shorts beta to the U.S. We plan to introduce more features as we continue to build Shorts alongside creators and artists. Here’s an update on where we’re headed with YouTube Shorts based on feedback from our community.
Unlocking a new playground of creativity
With our Shorts beta in India, we had foundational creation tools, like a multi-segment camera to string multiple video clips together, the ability to record with music, control speed settings, and more. And today we’re adding more features, like the ability to add text to specific points in your video. You’ll also be able to sample audio from other Shorts so you can remix it into your own creation.
In the coming months, we’ll launch the ability to use audio from videos across YouTube – which includes billions of videos worldwide – unlocking a new playground of creativity like never before. This means you can give your own creative spin on the content you love to watch on YouTube and help find it a new audience — whether it’s reacting to your favorite jokes, trying your hand at a creator’s latest recipe, or re-enacting comedic skits. Creators will be in control and will be able to opt out if they don’t want their long form video remixed.
We’ve also worked alongside our music partners to make sure artists and creators have a large library of songs to use in their Shorts. As we launch our beta in the US, we’ll have millions of songs (and growing), music catalogs from over 250 labels and publishers, including Universal Music Group’s labels and publishing companies, Sony Music Entertainment and Publishing, Warner Music Group and Warner Chappell Music, Believe, Merlin, 300 Entertainment, Kobalt, Beggars, CD Baby, Empire, Peer, Reservoir, OneRPM and more. As we expand Shorts, the library and number of partners will continue to grow.
Stay tuned for more Shorts creation tools rolling out in the future as we expand to more countries.
Delivering a seamless viewing experience across YouTube
We know that creation is only one part of the Shorts experience. We also want to help people find Shorts to enjoy and help creators get discovered. We’ve introduced a row on the YouTube homepage especially for Shorts, have launched a new watch experience that lets you easily swipe vertically from one video to the next, and are testing adding a Shorts tab on mobile that makes it easier for you to watch Shorts with a single tap.
We’re also exploring how to deepen your connection with Shorts content, creators, and artists you’re most interested in by integrating it with the YouTube you already know and love. For instance, if you hear a snippet of a song on Shorts, you can easily find the full song, watch the music video, or learn more about the artist —all on YouTube. And soon it will work both ways. Loving music from Megan Thee Stallion? Tap the create button right from the video to make your own Short with that audio, or check out how others are using it on Shorts.
As more people create and watch Shorts, we expect that our systems will get even better, improving our ability to help you discover new content, trends, and creators you’ll love.
Supporting mobile creators
YouTube has helped an entire generation of creators turn their creativity into businesses and become the next generation media companies. Over the last three years, we’ve paid more than $30 billion to creators, artists, and media companies.
Shorts is a new way to watch and create on YouTube, so we’re taking a fresh look at what it means to monetize Shorts and reward creators for their content. We are deeply committed to supporting the next generation of mobile creators with Shorts, and are actively working on what monetization options will look like in the future.
The Shorts beta will start gradually rolling out today and will be available to everybody in the U.S. over the next several weeks. We know that it will take us time to get this right, and we’re just getting started. We can’t wait for you to try Shorts and help us build a first-class short-form video experience right on YouTube.
Written by Todd Sherman, Product Lead, YouTube Shorts