YouTube announced on Thursday the launch of new video creation tools for Shorts, its short-form video platform designed to compete with TikTok. These enhancements come at a critical moment as TikTok, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, faces the threat of a ban in the U.S. unless it is sold to an American owner by April 5.
Among the exciting new features is an updated video editor that allows creators to make precise adjustments and edits. This includes an automatic syncing function that aligns video cuts to the beat of a chosen song, as well as the introduction of AI-generated stickers. YouTube, which is a subsidiary of Google, announced that these creator tools will be rolled out later this spring.
In addition to new editing capabilities, YouTube also revealed last week that it is altering how view counts for Shorts are calculated. Under the new guidelines, views will now be tallied each time a video is played or replayed, with no minimum watch time requirement. Previously, views were counted only when a video played for a specific duration. This change aligns Shorts with the view-counting methods used by TikTok and Meta’s Reels, which is expected to result in inflated view counts.
YouTube’s Chief Product Officer, Johanna Voolich, noted, “We received feedback from creators indicating that this is what they wanted. This change will help them better understand when their Shorts have been seen.” She emphasized that the updated view count methodology will be particularly beneficial for creators who distribute content across multiple platforms, enabling them to gauge engagement more effectively.
