Amid the uncertain future of TikTok in the United States, Google is launching a similar service named YouTube Shorts but it is limited to the Indian market right now, where TikTok has already been banned.
As the name indicates, YouTube Shorts allows users to upload a 15-second or less short-form videos using a new set of creator tools, including a multi-segment camera, speed controls, timer, and a countdown feature.
The company has revealed that it will be available in India starting this week for Android users and will soon be available for iOS users and will come to other regions in the coming months.
The company says that the team is focused on building its foundation across three main areas:
Create
This is the core of short-form video to easily create Shorts. Starting with early beta release in India, here are the top features:
A multi-segment camera to string multiple video clips together
Recording with music from a large library of songs
Speed controls with the flexibility to be creative in the performance
Timer and countdown to easily record, hands-free
Get discovered
With this, the company is trying to encourage mobile creators or artists to start uploading their existing short videos on YouTube today to get discovered on the platform.
The company says that it has more than 2 billion monthly users and notes that “we want to enable the next generation of mobile creators to also grow a community on YouTube with Shorts.”
Watch
The company is introducing a new watch experience enabling users to swipe vertically from one video to the next, along with a discover feature for other similar short videos.
The announcement comes just as the deadline for closing the acquisition deal for TikTok is coming to an end. Microsoft has already confirmed that TikTok has rejected its bid and is being reported that Oracle could emerge as a “technology partner” for the ByteDance-owned company. However, there are also other reports which claim that the deal won’t go through as the Chinese government is blocking it.
