Google has announced a significant update to its YouTube Shorts service, which lets you create short TikTok-style videos.
In the coming weeks, YouTube Shorts clips will begin appearing on both the YouTube Web version and the YouTube apps for Android and iOS tablets. Until now, YouTube Shorts have only been available on the YouTube app on smartphones. Now there will be a new Shorts tab on tablets and the YouTube site.
Another significant new feature allows creators to use excerpts from “billions” of videos already published on YouTube in their short videos.
It’s noted that opening YouTube’s library of billions of videos for reuse is an important step that could allow creators to profit if their original content goes viral or begins to be widely used by others.
This innovation will become available on YouTube for iOS in the coming weeks, but won’t appear on Android until later this year.