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YouTube to launch TikTok-like short-form video feature in India after ban of Chinese app
- Shorts will allow creators to ‘shoot short, catchy videos using nothing but their mobile phones’
- The feature shares many similarities with TikTok, the wildly popular video-sharing app banned in India and facing a forced sale in the US
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YouTube will be testing its new short-form video feature in India, where ByteDance-owned TikTok – often credited for popularising the format – has been banned since June.
The new feature, called Shorts, will be part of YouTube’s existing app and allow creators to “shoot short, catchy videos using nothing but their mobile phones”, the Alphabet-owned video-sharing platform said in a post on its official blog.
Digital media site The Information first reported in April that YouTube was developing a TikTok-like feature with a feed of super-short videos that will act as an alternative to longer vlogs and clips that appear on YouTube.
In the blog post on Monday, YouTube revealed that the new feature will allow content creators to record videos up to 15 seconds long with music from a large library of songs. Just like on TikTok, creators will also be able to control the speed of their videos and film hands-free using a timer and countdown, while users can swipe vertically between videos.
An early beta version of the product will be launched “over the next few days in India”, YouTube said, adding that it will introduce more features and launch the feature in more countries in the coming months.
Shorts is among a slew of TikTok alternatives that have emerged as the wildly popular Chinese-owned app faces headwinds internationally.
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