YouTube brings Shorts to the big screen
Image Credit: YouTube
YouTube improves the Shorts experience on the TV, because apparently vertical, scrollable, short-form videos were made for wide screens.
YouTube’s TikTok competitor, Shorts are coming to the TV. While videos under 60 seconds were previously watchable on the big screen before, this latest update will vastly improve the experience of discovering short videos.
Recommended Shorts are available right on the homepage of the YouTube app or in your favourite creators’ channels.
YouTube have cleaned up the viewing experience as a whole, filling the screen from top to bottom with one Short, removing the usual scrolling time bar and displaying additional information to the side, such as a title, channel name, track used, as well as like and dislike buttons. Find out more about the three possible design options from YouTube here.
You can find more information about the current Short by pressing the right button on your remote. Advance to the video using the down button. Press up for the previous Short.
While I don’t see people rushing to the living television to load up an endless stream of lip-syncing content any time soon, more options is usually better, providing it doesn’t interrupt the usual streams of long-form content.
The update is rolling out over the coming weeks on most modern smart TVs, gaming consoles and streaming devices. This may not be available on some devices released before 2019.
Bringing Shorts to our community has transformed the way people create and watch video on YouTube. When we introduced this new format, we optimized the experience for the mobile creator and viewer. Today, we’re expanding viewing access to Shorts to our fastest growing surface: the TV screen. While this 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. In this next installment of our Innovation Series, you’ll hear from two of the user experience (UX) design leads who made this leap a reality.
Neal Mohan, Chief Product Officer, YouTube