With Shorts consumption rising on YouTube, it’s making a much bigger transfer to tackle TikTok head-to-head, with the addition of a variety of new, TikTok-like features for Shorts that’ll carry the 2 platforms into nearer parity.
First off, YouTube’s including a brand new ‘Collab; characteristic which can allow you to report a Brief in a side-by-side format with different YouTube or Shorts movies.
Look acquainted?
The format is a direct copy of TikTok’s ‘Duet’ functionality, which has change into a well-liked possibility for creators to answer different customers’ posts.
Up until now, YouTube has solely offered audio remix choices for Shorts, however because it appears to be like to lean additional into the short-form development, it’s incorporating extra TikTok instruments to problem the app.
“Creators can choose from multiple layout options to easily join in with a split screen format. Just hit ‘Remix’ then ‘Collab’ to remix an eligible Short or YouTube video.”
Along with this, YouTube’s additionally rolling out a brand new Q&A sticker, which can allow creators to immediate direct response from viewers throughout the Shorts stream.

Which may even look acquainted, provided that each TikTok and Instagram have the identical.
Oh, additionally, live-streaming in vertical show format:

Yeah, YouTube’s not likely making an attempt to cover its admiration for TikTok, with its new vertical reside stream providing additionally mimicking the feel and appear of TikTok’s reside content material, which, additionally like TikTok, will probably be displayed within the Shorts stream.
“Viewers in the test [of this new functionality] will see previews of vertical live videos mixed into the Shorts feed. As someone taps into the experience, they’ll be placed in a scrollable feed of other live videos.”
YouTube’s additionally trying to make Shorts creation simpler, by including new shortcuts that may hyperlink a viewer via to the digital camera composer with the audio and/or results from the Brief that they had been viewing utilized, to allow them to use that as a template.

As per YouTube:
“From the Shorts player, tap the Remix button and select ‘use sound’. We’ll automatically surface the same audio time stamp from the Short you just watched, and the same effect as a creation suggestion. You can always mix and match to make it your own, too!”
Which can be a lot the identical as what you are able to do on IG and TikTok, however may very well be useful for tapping into traits, or responding to clips in-stream.
YouTube additionally not too long ago added the capability to avoid wasting Shorts to playlists proper on YouTube, making it simpler to maintain tabs on Shorts content material that you simply need to watch once more, whereas it’s additionally testing new ‘recomposition tools’, which can allow you to remodel your horizontal movies into Shorts clips.
Actually, it’s a variety of TikTok coming to YouTube, which given the popularity of short-form video might be not a foul factor. The benefit of YouTube, for creators no less than, is that by constructing a presence on Shorts, you may then parlay that into constructing your following with longer-form content material within the app as properly, which could be extra successfully monetized, and will facilitate a greater pathway to income success.
Brief-form content material is harder to make cash from, which is why TikTok’s eager so as to add in different parts, like in-stream shopping, to assist complement creator incomes.
On this respect, perhaps having these instruments out there on YouTube will probably be much more beneficial, and with Shorts now being watched by over 2 billion YouTube users every month, the curiosity ranges within the format clearly rival YouTube and Instagram, which might enable you to attain an enormous captive viewers.