YouTube Shorts officially launches

Back in April, we reported that YouTube is silently working on a YouTube feature similar to TikTok that allows creators to upload short-form videos. Well, YouTube Shorts is finally official and rolling out to users.

YouTube Shorts, which is currently in Beta in India, lets users create short-form videos of 15 seconds or less straight from the YouTube app. It comes with tools like a multi-segment camera to string multiple video clips together, the option to record with music from a large library of songs, speed controls, and a timer and countdown.

YouTube made a create icon on the Android app (to expand to iOS) to quickly access the Shorts camera. Users just need to hit the “+” icon and select ‘Video’. If you see ‘Create a short video’ then you have access to the Shorts camera.

Again, YouTube Shorts is currently being rolled out to Indian users. So, if you don’t have access to the Shorts camera yet, you can still upload your existing vertical videos that are less than 60 seconds using the hashtag #Shorts in the title or description.

YouTube is also testing out a section on the YouTube homepage to highlight videos created from the Shorts camera, as well as any vertical video up to 60 seconds that have been uploaded to YouTube.

No word yet when it will globally roll out.