While TikTok has stormed ahead to become the platform most people turn to when they want short form videos, plenty of other social medial companies are trying to get in on the action too. From Instagram’s Reels to YouTube’s Shorts, platforms are trying to keep up with the popularity of the short, snappy video format that TikTok has popularized.
Now, YouTube is pushing ahead with its Shorts competitor, by introducing a suite of new features designed to make creating and editing short videos easier and more fun.
The new creation tools for YouTube Shorts will arrive this spring, and will include AI-powered features and an improved video editor. The editor will allow more precise adjustments of video timing, which is crucial for short form content, and in a clear nod to TikTok’s love for viral songs, the video creator will be able to automatically align video clips to the beat of a song, creating a synced edit.
“The editor itself is going to be much more powerful. It’s going to allow you to pinch and zoom and find the right moments in the shorts that you can really make your own,” said YouTube’s Chief Product Officer, Johanna Voolich, in a video discussing the changes. “So it’s just going to be a much more powerful experience.”
There will also be the addition of AI stickers, which can be quickly generated from a text prompt and then added straight into a Short. Other stickers created from images in your gallery can be added too, making it a quick way to add some personalization to your videos.
Finally, the templates feature will get an update, so you can copy the style and effects of popular formats straight into your own Short. And in a nice nod to credit sharing, when you use a template for your Shorts it will automatically attribute that template to its original creator.