YouTube Shorts Competes with TikTok by Introducing New 3-Minute Video Format

YouTube has once again entered the battle with TikTok by announcing that Shorts can now extend up to three minutes in length.

TikTok originally introduced three-minute videos back in July 2021, which quickly gained popularity among fans and creators on the platform.

Now, YouTube aims to compete with the Bytedance-owned app’s features by allowing Shorts videos to be as long as three minutes.

This announcement was made on October 3, 2024, in a blog post from the Google-owned company.

“Longer Shorts, more of you. Starting on October 15, you can upload Shorts up to 3 minutes long. This was a top requested feature by creators, so we’re excited to give you more flexibility to tell your story,” the post stated.

“This change applies to videos that are square or taller in aspect ratio and won’t affect any videos you uploaded before October 15. Additionally, we will work on enhancing recommendations for longer Shorts in the forthcoming months.”

Big Shorts news!👖 Longer Shorts — Up to 3 min!🪄 Templates!🕺 Stay on top of trends!🫣 Show fewer Shorts!✨ Veo in Dream Screen➕ And more!So excited for @YouTubeCreators @tdd! pic.twitter.com/KsvDkkNGKe

— YouTube Liaison (@YouTubeLiaison) October 3, 2024

Both viewers and YouTube creators have quickly taken to social media to share their excitement regarding this extended video length, with many expressing enthusiasm.

“Very exciting! YouTube Shorts is moving from the restrictive 60 seconds max to 180 seconds! Most of my content fits in between 1 – 3 minutes, so this is perfect!” remarked tech TikToker DaPoets.

Another user said: “Nice! My shorts always go a little over a minute. Hard to cut down to 59 sec.”

A third user pointed out that monetizing a video on TikTok requires it to be over a minute long. Previously, when they cross-posted content to YouTube Shorts, they had to trim it down. Now, this won’t be necessary.

This announcement follows YouTube’s recent updates, which included new features aimed at enhancing the user experience. In September, the Google-owned platform introduced gifts for vertical live streams as a new method to support favorite creators.

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