YouTube’s New Tool Lets Creators Turn Existing, Longer Videos Into ‘Shorts’
YouTube has launched a new tool that allows creators to turn their existing longer videos into “Shorts” — in order to better compete with TikTok.
The Google-owned company announced the new feature on their website yesterday. The new “Edit into a Short” tool will be added to YouTube’s iOS and Android app and will start rolling out today. The tool will let creators select up to 60 seconds from their own existing long-form YouTube videos and convert them into the company’s short-form video offering, “Shorts.”
If the selected clip is shorter than 60 seconds, creators will also be able to add additional video shot with the “Shorts” camera or pulled from their photo library. This will help creators add additional context or new updates to “Shorts” they make from older long-form clips.
YouTube says that the finished Short will automatically provide a link back to the original, long-form video it was clipped from, which could enable “Shorts” to become an ideal promotional tool for the creator’s longer content —- a key incentive while YouTube continues testing monetization options for the feature.
Importantly, the “Edit into a Short” feature is only available for the original creator of the longer video. This tool is not available for other creators to use on their own content.
“We want to empower creators to easily take a moment from one of their videos-on-demand, bring it into our tools and easily edit it into an engaging Short for their viewers,” says YouTube “Shorts” creation product lead Vadim Lavrusik in a statement provided to Mashable.
“Attributing content and raising viewer awareness of a creator’s vast array of videos is an important part of this feature,” adds Lavrusik. “Viewers can easily tap the link to navigate to the video it came from and watch the full thing if they want to go deeper.”
The new tool is an apparent move by YouTube’s parent Google to compete with TikTok as they continue to dominate short-form video. In recent months, social media giants have been rushing to add TikTok-like features to their apps — with Instagram head Adam Mosseri doubling-down on video in the last week. Instagram also announced that any user can “remix” their photos and turn them into their TikTok clone Reels.
