YouTube Shorts Will Boost Max Video Length to 3 Minutes

YouTube Shorts are about to get a longer playing time.

The video platform’s TikTok-like short-form format will triple the maximum length of videos, boosting it from 60 seconds to 3 minutes. Starting Oct. 15, creators will be able to upload YouTube Shorts that are up to 3 minutes long.

The change will make “storytelling on Shorts more immersive,” Todd Sherman, director of product management for YouTube Shorts, wrote in a blog post. “This was a top-requested feature by creators, so we’re excited to give you more flexibility to tell your story.”

It’s worth noting that TikTok has already been down this road: In 2021, it expanded the max length of videos from 60 seconds to 3 minutes. Currently, videos recorded in TikTok can be up to 10 minutes long and videos uploaded to the app can be up to 60 minutes long — a move by TikTok to compete with YouTube in longer-form content.

The 3-minute maximum length for YouTube Shorts applies to videos that are square or vertical in aspect ratio; clips uploaded prior to Oct. 15 won’t be affected. According to Sherman, YouTube is working to improve recommendations for longer Shorts “in the coming months.”

Meanwhile, if you’re not necessarily a fan of YouTube Shorts, the platform is introducing an option to “Show Fewer Shorts”; users can select the setting from the three-dot menu in the upper right of any Shorts grid in their Home feed and they will temporarily be shown fewer Shorts.

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YouTube Shorts also has made recent updates to the player to “streamline its look, allowing creators’ content to take center stage and viewers to focus on the content they love,” Sherman wrote in the post.

There’s a new Shorts trends page on mobile where you can discover what’s popular in your country. And soon, YouTube Shorts users will be able to get a preview of what people are saying in comments right from the Shorts feed (without going into the comments feed).

In addition, YouTube Shorts is introducing templates so creators can “jump on the latest trends, match your clips to the hottest sounds, and add your own unique flair,” according to Sherman.

The feature can be accessed by tapping “Remix” on a Short and select “Use this template.” And in the next few months, YouTube Shorts users will be able to access YouTube content directly from the Shorts camera to make it easier to remix clips from their favorite videos.

YouTube has announced that it will begin integrating Google DeepMind’s Veo generative AI video model into YouTube Shorts later this year. “Creators will be able to bring their ideas to life with even more extraordinary video backgrounds and standalone video clips, making your Shorts even dreamier later this year,” wrote Sherman.

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YouTube Shorts are watched by more 2 billion logged-in users every month, up from 1.5 billion one year ago, Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet and Google, said on the tech giant’s second-quarter 2024 earnings call.

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