YouTube is reportedly planning to launch a similar short-form video sharing feature like its viral rival, TikTok, for its mobile app by the end of 2020. The feature, called "Shorts" will live as a feed inside YouTube's mobile app. As a result, the users will have access to YouTube's expansive music and songs library.
Shorts – Google's Answer to TikTok
The super-short videos will be reportedly similar to the TikTok concept and will act as an alternative to the longer clips and videos that appear on YouTube. Shorts will allow users to upload short videos into a feed in their app and also leverage from the extensive catalog of licensed music, reveals The Information.
Shorts will allow people to upload brief videos into a feed inside the mobile app, much like TikTok, and take advantage of licensed music that YouTube Music has in its catalog. With the success of TikTok with as many as two billion downloads, the race to launch short-video apps has been at an all-time high.
Since its launch in 2017 in the U.S., it soon caught up with the content creators to become the next big thing after Twitter shut down Vine in 2016.
Shorts, being built into the YouTube app, which will pose a real challenge to TikTok's position in the market because the users will able to use it without the need to download another app. At the same time, the content creators with millions of subscribers on their YouTube channels won't also have to convince their fans to move to another app for more content.
Debut Likely by End of 2020
The app will launch as part of the main YouTube app and will let users create seconds long videos. While there is no official confirmation about Shorts, The Information's sources reveal that the app might launch by the end of this year.
The user interface will be likely similar to that of TikTok and the users will get plenty of music choices to add to their clips.
When contacted by Engadget for comment, a spokesperson for YouTube refused to comment on the development of the short-video sharing app.
