The beta version of Google’s YouTube Shorts will be available to everybody in Ireland from Wednesday, 14th July. Launched in India in 2020, Shorts aims to give TikTok and Instagram a run for their money.

So, what is YouTube Shorts?

YouTube Shorts are a new video experience that will allow users to watch, share and create bite-sized content, all from their phone. To qualify as a Short, videos must be max 60 seconds and a minimum of 15 seconds and in vertical format.

Arguably, the aim of YouTube Shorts is to capitalise on the growing popularity of apps like TikTok. Younger demographics are more attracted to short-form content, and YouTube’s Shorts is Google’s way of adapting to current trends (the average attention span for Gen-Z is only 12 seconds!). Twitter recently undertook similar diversification with what it calls ‘Fleets’, which, as announced yesterday, is already defunct. Clearly, TikTok is having a significant impact on the digital landscape while enjoying first mover advantage as the preferred platform for short form video content.

YouTube will separate long and short-form content, and give users the option of both. In addition, Shorts will be given their own viewing experience inside the YouTube app. Users will be able to scroll through Shorts similarly to how they would do on TikTok.

YouTube wants to encourage more users to make and share content as user-generated content is becoming increasingly popular.  The creation of YouTube shorts is in line with current attitudes, particularly among younger audiences. Gen-Z and millennials love to create and share content, hence the substantial growth in the TikTok user base. Simply put, this is YouTube’s way of staying relevant to users.

Key Features:

Shorts will have a suite of content creation tools similar to TikTok. The suite will enable users to create short video content with a multi-segment camera to string videos together. Users can also sample audio from other Shorts and videos all across YouTube, which includes billions of videos worldwide.

Key editing features include:

• Add text to specific points in your video.
• Automatically add captions.
• Up to 60 seconds of recording with the ‘Shorts camera’.
• Combine clips from ‘Shorts camera’ and phone gallery.
• Add basic filters, with more effects to come in the future.

Users will be able to cross share content from YouTube Shorts to Facebook and Twitter, by copying links. It is unclear yet if content can be downloaded or saved from the app for publishing onto Instagram.

In a way, YouTube has returned to its roots with this development: the first video ever published on the platform was only 18 seconds long. It was titled “Me at the zoo” and was uploaded in 2005.