YouTube has announced a trio of new Shorts updates, as it seeks to build on the growth of the format, and get more people spending more time attached to the Shorts feed.
At the same time, it’s also adding an option to scale back Shorts, for those who are getting a little Shorted out.
First off, YouTube’s launching an updated variation of its Shorts templates, which will enable users to recreate or repurpose more elements of Shorts that they see.
Which YouTube has kind of had in place since earlier this year, via Remix, but this variation is a little different.
As explained by YouTube:
“Up until now creators could only remix Single elements for Shorts, for example a song, video, or effect. But now, creators can replicate or build on attributes from any existing video they’ve watched, including inherited elements like audio segment timing and text.”
So you can now utilize more elements within the templates process, giving you more ways to reuse Shorts clips.
YouTube says that anybody can create a template by making or uploading a video, and anyone can add or modify them.
“The goal is to spark inspiration, support Trends, and participate in the community, and we’ll be bringing this to all creators in the coming weeks.”
I’m not sure that this is an ideal use of the remix process, but many users are already reusing audio from other clips, and this aligns with such usage.
YouTube’s also expanding on its song snippets option for Shorts, with users now able to opt-into receiving notifications when the full song is released.
That’ll add another music promotion pathway in the app, which could encourage more musicians to post more Shorts content.
YouTube’s also wary of overloading people with Shorts in the Home feed, so it’s adding in a new toggle to decrease the frequency of Shorts clips being shown in-stream.
As you can see in this example, now, users will be able to indicate that they want to see fewer Shorts, by tapping on the three dot menu on any Shorts grid in the Home feed.
“The goal is to make sure users can customize their YouTube experience based on their preferences.”
Which could also impact Shorts views, right? If fewer Shorts are being displayed, that means fewer clicks on those clips.
But YouTube says this is likely not a concern.
“We expect viewers who use this option aren’t users who would frequently watch Shorts to begin with, so we don’t anticipate a material impact to creators.”
I mean, having the function essentially hidden within the three dots menu will ensure most people don’t use it anyway, but worth noting for your Shorts stats.
Finally, on the non-Shorts front, YouTube Studio Mobile now supports rotation in landscape view, on both Android and iOS.
So now, you can get your performance data in wide-screen. Well, wide-screen on mobile that is. That could make it easier to check out the specifics, and better understand the charts and notes within your Studio dashboard.
