YouTube Answers TikTok With 3 Minute Shorts

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Key Takeaways

  • YouTube will now allow creators to upload Shorts up to three minutes long.
  • Up until now, Shorts could last a maximum of 60 seconds.
  • The update will be implemented from October 15th.

YouTube is rolling out several updates to Shorts, its answer to TikTok and Instagram Reels, starting with longer Shorts up to three minutes.

YouTube Shorts can currently be up to 60 seconds long. At the time of writing, competitor TikTok allows users to upload videos up to ten minutes in length, while Instagram Reels can currently run up to 90 seconds long.

According to a post on YouTube’s official blog, this was a “top-requested feature” for creators. It’s great news for those who need a bit more time to get their point across but don’t want to produce a conventional video.

Templates and Trends Coming to YouTube Shorts

Other updates coming to Shorts include the template feature, which works similarly to a template feature on Instagram Reels. This allows creators to take inspiration from other videos, jumping on trends and recreating other users’ editing choices – however, it could also lead to a lot of content looking the same.

To use templates, users can tap “Remix” on an inspirational Short and then tap “Use This Template” to pull editing choices into their own Short.

A new Shorts trends page on the mobile app will let creators and users stay on top of Trends. YouTube is also bringing the ability to preview what people are saying in comments directly from the Shorts feed, without jumping into the Comments feed.