YouTube Shorts, TikTok Clone, Now Live in the U.S.

The TikTok clone, YouTube Shorts, is rolling out in the United States. In September 2020, the feature launched in India and was first spotted by XDA Developers on US Devices. Similar to TikTok, YouTube lets the users make short, bite-sized one-minute videos and upload them. Users can swipe through these using the YouTube app.

The YouTube Shorts section is located in the section of the mobile app of the YouTube home screen. It currently features a beta label. The functioning of this is entirely similar to TikTok with vertical full-screen videos and swiping vertically between videos. You can like, dislike, comment, and share any video.

The twist here is that YouTube Shorts are also regular YouTube videos, and they also show traditional YouTube videos, channel pages, and subscription feeds. These are indistinguishable from regular YouTube videos. They have a standard interface and not the swiping one like TikTok. This is the only way to view these videos on the desktop.

A significant part of TikTok is the video editor, which allows users to make videos with effects, music, filters, etc. The YouTube shorts editor is nearly featureless compared to TikTok. It only offers speed and music options.

Being the most powerful video platform, YouTube is always swatting down upstart competitors and cloning their format. This was famously done by the company in 2015 when it launched YouTube Gaming. It was a live stream gaming platform launched in the vein of Twitch.tv by Amazon. The company shut down the standalone YouTube Gaming Application after four years of operation.