YouTube joins Instagram in the push for more of short-video content

Not only is Meta focused on short videos, YouTube is working to encourage shorter videos with a new option for content creators to turn parts of their longer videos into several short videos of 1-minute.

The company announced a new tool for content creators that can easily convert existing YouTube videos into short ones. An update now available on the YouTube mobile app makes it easy for video creators to select parts from previously uploaded videos and then post them as YouTube Shorts content.

Without their notice, YouTube used to turn content creators’ uploaded vertical videos into short videos that are less than 60 seconds. Now, with the release of this new tool that allows them to extract interesting parts from their larger videos, YouTube is expecting that creatorsr would contribute even more actively to the Shorts library.

The move shows just thow concerned YouTube’s parent company is about TikTok’s dominance in a nutshell. Don’t think that organically expanding your YouTube Shorts library by uploading new and original content isn’t enough.

Instead, YouTube is using existing long content to create more short video content. For example, in April 2022, YouTube announced that all public YouTube videos could be “remixed” into short YouTube videos, unless the creators objected.

Meanwhile, the new tools are giving back some privileges to creators. The updated mobile app allows content creators to select parts of videos up to 60 seconds long and convert them into shorter content using the same editing tools they are used to in the app, the company explains. If your choice is less than 60 seconds, you can use the camera shot to record additional video or add a video from your gallery to complete the content of the 60 second shot.

YouTube notes that short video created using video-on-demand (VOD) are automatically linked to the original, so users can use the tool to increase interest in full-length content.

YouTube is touting Shorts’ ability to generate views of full-length creator content as part of a trend they call “the rise of multi-format video creators.”

The company said in June that Shorts had over 1.5 billion monthly users, but only anecdotal data showed that Shorts helped improve important metrics such as watch time and subscriber count.

YouTube says the new Shorts creation feature will be available on the mobile app for both iOS and Android smartphones.