YouTube is actively expanding the capabilities of its Shorts video service, including adding features borrowed from TikTok. New features include vertical live streaming, parallel recording, and additional tools for creating short films from long YouTube videos.
YouTube is experimenting with adding previews of live broadcasts to users' Shorts feeds. Viewers can watch a broadcast and then scroll through a feed filled with other broadcasts. Author monetization features, such as paid chat and paid subscriptions, will also be available in this feed.
Posting live videos can help authors find new audiences with Shorts. One can't help but draw parallels with TikTok, which emphasizes live video as a way to sell products, fine-tune target audiences, and host vibrant virtual events that increase engagement. YouTube has promised the arrival of full-screen live videos in the coming months.
The company is also introducing new features for creating short videos. New tools for creating short videos from a horizontal YouTube clip are being tested now, including the ability to scale and trim the original video. Shorts creators will also get a new feature that offers to extract the audio clip and effect used in the original video. The audio will start at the same timestamp as the user's clip.
Starting today, the company is adding the ability to record a video next to another clip, similar to the TikTok Duet feature. The feature, called Collab, will include multiple layouts, and creators will be able to use the effect in Shorts and regular YouTube videos.
YouTube has entered a serious competitive battle with the dominance of TikTok short videos. In an effort to attract more creators, YouTube recently lowered its qualification requirements for monetization on the platform, opening up some of YouTube's affiliate program features to creators with small audiences.
