YouTube has been making a series of updates to its platform, including changes to Shorts, channel memberships, and sponsored content.
One of the most significant recent changes was the announcement that all videos up to three minutes long would be considered Shorts. This caused some confusion among creators, as many wondered how their older, shorter videos would be categorized. YouTube has since clarified that only videos uploaded after October 15th, 2024, that are under three minutes and filmed in a vertical aspect ratio will be considered Shorts. Older videos will remain as VODs or long-form videos.
As per YouTube:
“To be explicitly clear, vertical videos of 3 minutes or less uploaded before October 15th 2024 will remain as VODs or long form videos. No videos uploaded prior to today will be converted to Shorts, only videos of 0 to 3 minutes in length filmed in square or taller aspect ratio that are uploaded to YouTube starting today will be considered Shorts.”
In addition to the Shorts changes, YouTube is also experimenting with new features for channel memberships, such as the ability to upload custom membership badges directly from the Studio mobile and desktop onboarding flow. Previously, this feature was only available on Studio mobile.
YouTube is also making it easier to tag videos as sponsored content on mobile devices. Now, both short and long-form videos can be tagged as promoted on both web and mobile platforms.
Finally, YouTube is expanding Shorts drafts to Android and iOS devices. This allows creators to view and manage multiple drafts, making it easier to work on multiple videos at once.
YouTube says that it’ll take several weeks for its systems to adjust to this change:
“So if you upload a Short over 60 seconds moving forward, you’ll still see your new upload reflected as a regular long form video on your channel page, and the video will still be eligible to be recommended just like any other long form video. During this time, over the coming weeks, these videos will transition to be Shorts, and will start to appear in the Shorts tab on the channel page, and will be recommended in the Shorts feed.”