YouTube’s looking to make it even easier to create Shorts, with a new option that will automatically clip the most engaging elements of longer-form videos into shorter bites.
As per YouTube:
“We’re experimenting with a feature that lets creators easily cut out engaging segments from long-form videos on YouTube and instantly publish them as separate 16:9 videos. If you’re a creator in the experiment, you will see the option to ‘Create a video highlight’ in the video editor tool in YouTube Studio Desktop.”
So, essentially, the tool will be able to create Shorts for you, based on the elements that are driving the most engagement and view time in your longer clips.
Which could make it much easier for more YouTubers to add short clips into their arsenal, and boost their overall engagement in the app. Shorts are YouTube’s fastest-growing content type, now driving over 70 billion views per day, and many creators have been able to expand their channel engagement by adding in shorter elements.
And now, you won’t even have to come up with separate ideas for Shorts, YouTube’s system will just make and post them for you, so you can tap into Shorts without having to do any extra work.
Though, presumably, you will have to do some editing, as you would assume, also, that clipped out elements won’t be 100% standalone in many cases.
But it could be another consideration, and as YouTube looks to get more and more content into its Shorts feed, it’ll also derive benefit from facilitating more Shorts creation.
If it gets a broader release.
YouTube says that the option is currently being tested “with a small number of creators”, with English videos only.
As YouTube notes, if you’re in the test pool, you’ll see an option to ‘Create a video highlight’ in the video editor in YouTube Studio.