YouTube Shorts announces collaborations, live vertical video recommendations

YouTube's short form TikTok competitor, YouTube Shorts, continues to grow beyond being just a place to find clips under 60 seconds on the most popular video platform on the internet.

According to the company, YouTube Shorts now sees 2 billion logged-in views per month. Furthermore, some creators have basically built an entire audience on the platform through nothing but short form videos. 

YouTube has managed to build a formidable competitor to TikTok, the leader in the short form video space, in YouTube Shorts. And, of course, YouTube Shorts did so by borrowing some ideas from its biggest competitor.

In an announcement on Tuesday, YouTube shared even more upcoming YouTube Shorts features to further close the gap between these two short form video platforms.

Out of the six newly announced features, perhaps the most important is that livestream discover is coming to YouTube Shorts. That's right, vertical video livestreaming is coming to YouTube's short form video platform and will be recommended to users swiping through Shorts. 

Now, yes, vertical video streaming was already possible on YouTube but they previously did not appear on the YouTube Shorts platform. It just makes sense to recommend vertical video streams on YouTube's platform that's best made for mobile video.

And the timing couldn't be better. TikTok's live video feature went viral in July as seemingly the entire rest of the internet discovered the NPC livestreamer trend that's popular on the platform. Will NPC streamers try their luck over on YouTube Shorts? Super Chats, Super Stickers, and Memberships will all be available via these streams, just like they are for regular livestreams on the YouTube platform, so it's certainly possible.

Collabs are coming to YouTube Shorts

Another new major feature coming to YouTube Shorts is the "Collab" remix option. Creators will be able to easily make collaborative videos, reacting to other users' content with a tap. Collab will give users the option to record their own video in a side-by-side split screen format with another creator's videos on either YouTube or YouTube Shorts.

YouTube says it will also soon release more effects and stickers. One example the company provided is a Q&A sticker, which will enable creators to interact with their viewers and get responses to their questions right in the comment of the video.

New features designed to make YouTube Shorts fast, easy to make

In addition to live recommendations, collaborations, and new effects and stickers, YouTube also announced three more features that will help YouTubers in the creation of their content. One new feature will allow creators to easily make videos when inspiration strikes while watching another Short. This option will bundle audio and Shorts effects from videos that a user wants to remix, so, for example, they don't have to sift through the options to find the correct sounds.

One new option already available is the ability to save Shorts to playlists so users can curate their favorite videos.

And, finally, YouTube says it will be bringing out new recomposition tools so users can continue to make Shorts out of longform YouTube content. These editors will help creators zoom into content and adjust the crop and the layout of video segments. It will also include the Shorts split screen option built-in to the tool.

YouTube says it will start rolling out these new features in the coming weeks.