YouTube decides Shorts will be longer, up to 3 minutes

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After YouTube’s spectacular debut into short-form video entertainment with Shots, Google is now expanding on that success. YouTube is now rolling out an update that allows creators to create longer Shorts by extending the video duration to three minutes.

YouTube made a big update that increased the maximum duration of Shorts clips from sixty seconds to three minutes. The tech giant originally announced the move via a brand-new Creator Updates support page.

YouTube Shorts will now support longer video length 

Beginning on Tuesday, October 15, the new policy will give creators more opportunities to produce lengthier Shorts videos. However, keep in mind that YouTube will remove any Shorts with an active Content ID claim that are longer than the original one-minute duration.

For those unaware, when a YouTube video matches another video or a portion of a video in YouTube’s Content ID system, the platform automatically generates a Content ID claim.

It’s important to note that, as of right now, any YouTube video that runs longer than a minute is automatically labeled as long-form. But after October 15, every new video—regardless of aspect ratio: square or vertical—that lasts no more than three minutes will be automatically classified as a short.

Videos that are uploaded before October 15 and are more than three minutes long will continue to use the long-form revenue-sharing model. However, videos uploaded after October 15 that are up to three minutes will fall under the Shorts revenue-sharing model.

It’s also important to note that creators cannot directly record longer Shorts using the YouTube mobile app’s Shorts camera like before. Instead, creators will have to use the YouTube Studio or their desktop/mobile apps to publish Shorts videos that are up to three minutes long.

Recently, YouTube added a picture-in-picture mode to its short-form video format. And now, it extends the length of Shorts videos to three minutes. With these new updates coming left and right, it won’t come as a surprise if YouTube Shorts becomes a dedicated standalone app and competes with TikTok. 

What do you think about YouTube Shorts being longer? Are you okay watching three-minute vertical videos, or would you like them to stay short? Tell us your opinions in the comments below, or our Twitter or Facebook.