YouTube is putting its Shorts — its vertical, looping, short-form videos — onto the biggest and most horizontal screen in your life: the TV.
Google-owned YouTube, which has 2 billion monthly users, is the world’s largest source of online video. With Shorts, Google’s massive video site is trying to compete with the sensation around TikTok, the short-form social video app owned by Chinese company ByteDance. YouTube launched Shorts more than two years ago, starting in India and then widening it to the US and other countries.
By bringing Shorts to TVs, YouTube is breaking the vertical, short-form format out from mobile devices, where these kinds of clips are shot, posted and most often watched.
“When we introduced this new format, we optimized the experience for the mobile creator and viewer,” Neal Mohan, YouTube’s chief product officer, said in a post. While bringing Shorts to televisions may seem like a “natural next step, an incredible amount of thought and care has gone into bringing this vertical, mobile-first experience to the big screen,” he added.
On Monday, Google said that to watch Shorts this way, you’ll need to use YouTube’s app on a connected TV from 2019 and later, a gaming console or streaming device. YouTube even made a tutorial video about how Shorts appear on TVs and how to use your remote to watch and like them.
