YouTube‘s quest to turn every creator into a multiformat star is continuing into the 2025 calendar year. One of its recent test features is a tool that aids creators who wish to turn highlights from their long-form uploads into short-form clips.
The tool is described on the Google Support page that catalogs the experimental features currently available on YouTube. The post indicates that “some users” who post English-language content currently have the ability to “Create a video highlight” by selecting an option in the video editor tool. That prompt can be found on the desktop version of YouTube Studio.
The ability to cut clips from long-form YouTube videos and live streams predates the launch on YouTube Shorts. Creators got access to an updated, Shorts-compatible clipping tool in 2022. The latest upgrade to YouTube’s highlight-making suite looks to streamline the clipping process by letting creators “easily cut out engaging segments from long-form videos on YouTube and instantly publish them as separate 16:9 videos,” according to the Google Support post.
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On Twitch, where Clips have long been used to show off stream highlights, short-form snippets offer a TikTok-style browsing experience. YouTube wants its Shorts hub to keep up with TikTok, too, which is why it has carved out space on creator channels to host Clips.
Thanks to YouTube’s promotion on Clips, creators like Mark Rober have been able to reach new audiences on Shorts, often by cutting down memorable moments from longer uploads. The rise of Clips has brought in viewership for creators who typically rely on streaming content. Kai Cenat and iShowSpeed‘s YouTube highlight hubs currently rank among the platform’s 100 most-subscribed channels on a month-to-month basis.
YouTube’s advances in clipping technology will help it become a destination where creators can thrive with varied runtimes and video orientations. With so many headlines lately about big-name streamers giving up their exclusive YouTube contracts, it’s good to remember that the Google-owned hub is creating new opportunities for streaming talent, too.
