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Since their launch, Shorts have exploded in growth, even if they did initially skew channel growth shortly after the platform was inundated with vertical short-form video. Now, YouTube has announced a handful of new tools, including the ability to turn your regular videos into Shorts with the power of AI.
“Collab” is a new tool that lets you record a Short in a side-by-side format with other people’s YouTube or Shorts videos. Other platforms have the ability to jump in and remix another creator’s content and add value to it with your own thoughts, so it’s about time YouTube got on board, I guess. You won’t see me using this!
Alongside Collab, there are new Recomposition tools that make converting horizontal videos into Shorts more straightforward. With them, you can adjust the layout, zoom, and crop of the video segment. Split-screen effects are also part of this package. I imagine a lot of YouTubers will use this to get into the Shorts game with minimal effort, so get ready for way more of these on the platform!
Next up, text stickers add context or captions to your videos, and even let you host Q&As on a Short to get viewers more interested in commenting. YouTube is also adding bundled suggestions for edits to your videos based on the content creator you’re remixing and whatever they may have used. Oh, and the biggest announcement from the blog post aside from converting videos to a vertical format is that some creators are getting into a test that lets their livestreams appear in the vertical Shorts carousel at the top of the YouTube app for increased discoverability.
It’s clear that the team is all in on short form content, and as a millennial, I’m worried that our horizontal video culture is being upended by this vertical rectangle phone shape craze. I’m not a big fan of it, but it is convenient not to have to rotate my phone. Still, couldn’t we have just created a better solution than to conform to the shape of the devices we already have? I guess it makes sense though since we’re designing based on convenience and the shape our hand holds easiest!
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