YouTube is expanding YouTube Shorts to 100 countries after launching in India last year. Google announced the development of Shorts, its TikTok competitor in September 2020. The Beta version was rolled out in the US at the start of the year.
When Shorts was first introduced, anyone could view a clip, however, only users in a few countries could access the creating and editing tools. The rollout means that users in the 100 countries will now be able to create and edit Shorts, meaning there will even be more clips on the platform.
“We want to make it easy and fun to create Shorts,” said Todd Sherman, Global Product Manager for YouTube Shorts. “As we continue to build Shorts alongside our creators and artists, we will be adding more features for users to try”, he added.
Read: Youtube to Pay Creators Sh10 billion for Using its TikTok Competitor, YouTube Shorts
The features available on YouTube Shorts include the ability to add texts to specific points in the clips, add captions on the clip, and recording clips of up to 60 seconds using the Shorts camera. Users can also add clips and media from their gallery to the Shorts recordings and add basic filters to their Shorts. Users will also be able to sample music from YouTube’s vast library. The company says it will unlock more features in the near future.
It seems both YouTube and TikTok are borrowing each other’s features, as TikTok recently announced that users could record clips lasting up to three minutes long. Initially, the company allowed 15-second videos and gradually moved to a one-minute limit before announcing the new time limit.
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