Washington: Recently, Facebook in a bid to cash-in on the TikTok ban in several global regions, launched Reels, its own short video sharing feature on Instagram. Now, Google has announced the its own version dubbed as YouTube Shorts.
Chris Jaffe, VP of Product Management, YouTube, Google noted that user-generated short videos were actually started on YouTube and the latter’s first upload a short 18-second video called ‘Me at the zoo’ on April 23, 2005.
“As technology advances, creators and artists can now take advantage of the incredible power of smartphones to easily create and publish high-quality content wherever they are in the world. And people can be entertained and informed by bite-sized content in the spare minutes of the day,” said Jaffe.
Considering the immense popularity of TikTok in India, Google has decided to introduce YouTube Shorts beta with a handful of new creative tools to select people in the subcontinent. Based on the feedback, it will be improvised and made available in other global regions in the coming months.
YouTube Shorts: Key features you should know
1) It offers a multi-segment camera to string multiple video clips together,
2) There will be an option to record with music from a large library of songs that will continue to grow
3) There will be speed controls that will give users the flexibility to be creative in their performance
4) There will be a timer and countdown to easily record, hands-free. The maximum video length will be 15 seconds.
Users can watch other short videos on YouTube. “We have released a prominent new spot for the create icon on Android, starting in India. We’ll continue to expand to iOS devices and in more countries soon. You can also expect more creation features in the coming months,” Jaffe noted.
