YouTube Shorts, the short-form video product from the company, will be given a series of updates, the company announced. Creators will now be able to upload videos up to three minutes in length, the company said, while it is also updating the Shorts player, including templates and creating a new page of Shorts trends on mobile devices, it said.

Collectively, these updates will bring YouTube into a more competitive stand in comparison to TikTok, as the latter supports longer clips (10 minutes in recording, 60 minutes in upload) and makes it easier for the app's users to join trends.

The new Shorts player, according to YouTube, is much more streamlined and focused on what will make a short video pop out in the users' content. It does this by changing the interaction buttons on the right side of the screen from being those filled white icons to outlined ones, which would help the viewers to see video that would have otherwise been out of frame.
In addition, the title of the author along with a description and audio specifics were offered in a more concise manner and used less space on the bottom of the screen. Unfortunately, this now also means that the video description on some of the video views gets cut off so the user has to click the "more" button to read the full text.

Meanwhile, with templates, creators and more YouTube users can jump onto trends faster. This is a space where TikTok already shines through CapCut, which is built to work with the short video app. From any TikTok video, created with a CapCut template, users can hop right in to CapCut's app to go along with the trend, modifying the template with their own content.

It does the same thing that YouTube does, but with no independent app.

Instead, users of Shorts will be able to tap a "Remix" option on a Short, then select "Use this template" to make their video. Shortly, users will also be able to tap into its content from the Shorts camera, directly taking a short video out of one of their favorite clips or music videos, or collecting multiple clips from across YouTube.

Image Credits:YouTube
This Shorts on mobile will come with a new page that tracks what's trending, so its users can discover trends popular in their country of origin. This is the one difference YouTube makes to what is already widely taking place on TikTok, where users will find trends by browsing in their For You feed or tapping on search. It has, however eliminated the Discover page that had also listed what is trendy on the app at the time. In replacement, TikTok introduced the Friends tab in hopes to somewhat make the app social network more.

Yet, because TikTok is an international app, users are able to latch onto trends started by people in other countries and make them their own, while videos that go viral worldwide exist. The latest example is baby hippo, Moo Deng, which was such a big deal it was the impetus for a skit on SNL.

YouTube said soon it will let users see what people are saying in the comments from directly within the Shorts feed-a change that could nudge more interaction with videos and spur creators to publish "rage bait" videos designed to elicit a response in hopes of increasing engagement.

A fourth adjustment allows viewers to regulate just how many Shorts they'll see in their personal feeds. For this, YouTube is providing a new toggle: "Show fewer Shorts." That sits inside the three-dot menu of the Home feed's Shorts grid, in the top right. But YouTube says that will "temporarily" show viewers fewer Shorts. The company refused to say what duration of that pause would be, though.
Weeks ago, the company announced an update that would allow creators to incorporate video-generating AI model Veo by Google DeepMind with their YouTube Shorts. And according to YouTube, the update is now scheduled for later this year and can also be used for changing video backgrounds or publishing standalone video clips.