YouTube is letting Shorts be longer

YouTube Shorts is getting a makeover.

The short-form, vertical video format, which YouTube launched in 2021, is seeing its maximum video length go up to three minutes. In addition, YouTube is giving Shorts a redesign and building tools that allow creators to latch onto the latest short-form trends.

Previously, Shorts could be up to one minute long, and YouTube even applied that standard to old videos by letting creators convert their seconds-long VODs into Shorts. That runtime allowed YouTube to amass a library of millions of Shorts, collecting trillions of views in the process.

As YouTube found success with Shorts, the format’s primary rival began to change. TikTok’s maximum runtime went up to three minutes in 2021, hit ten minutes in 2022, and rose to 15 minutes a year later. Since many vertically-oriented videos are shared across Shorts, TikTok, and Instagram Reels (where the maximum length is three minutes), YouTube’s change allows its short-form format to be compatible with those reuploads.

“Starting on October 15, you can upload Shorts up to 3 minutes long,” reads a YouTube blog post introducing the change. “This was a top requested feature by creators, so we’re excited to give you more flexibility to tell your story. This change applies to videos that are square or taller in aspect ratio, and won’t affect any videos you uploaded before October 15.”

The other changes coming to Shorts will also bring it in line with its competitors. The redesign, as seen in the above image, makes the icons on the Shorts player transparent while truncating the video description at the bottom of the screen. In other words, YouTube Shorts now looks a little more like Reels, for better or for worse.

YouTube is also plotting features that will help its Shorts creators appropriate the top trends from TikTok and beyond. Viral videos will become available as templates, which creators can remix to put their own twists on hot content (a similar feature can be found on Reels.) And a Shorts trends page on mobile will keep creators abreast of the latest cultural developments.

The emphasis on trends will give YouTube a chance to push its expansive music library within the short-form world. Specific musical cues can often spark trends that reach millions of viewers. Therefore, if YouTube provides a space where visitors can peruse the hottest topics, creators will be able to put the platform’s audio offerings to good use.

That’s just one way Shorts is about to change, and the arrival of three-minute vertical videos could reveal new trends. We’ll begin to find out when the runtime expands on October 15.