YouTube experiments with combining Shorts and long-form videos in one feed

YouTube is experimenting with integrating longer video clips into its popular Shorts feed, in a bid to capitalize on the format's success. This move, though seemingly contradictory, aims to maximize viewership across all content types, leveraging the 70 billion daily views Shorts generates as reported by Social Media Today website.

The platform explained its approach, stating: “To try to help viewers better discover content across channels, formats, and lengths on YouTube, we’re running a few small experiments on the Watch Page and with Shorts. If you’re a viewer in the experiment, these new discovery experiences could include a mix of video formats including long-form videos where you’d usually see Shorts (example: the Shorts Feed) or new feeds of long-form videos.”

YouTube’s plan appears to hinge on using the popularity of Shorts to drive broader video promotion, though questions remain about how horizontally formatted long-form clips will integrate into the vertically aligned Shorts feed. This aspect could lead to a jarring user experience if not executed carefully.

Shorts has been a major driver of engagement for YouTube, as users increasingly favor shorter, bite-sized video content. Aligning recommendations around this format to boost overall viewership seems logical, but it remains to be seen how these changes will be received by users.

YouTube also noted that long-form video clips viewed in the Shorts Feed might be measured as Shorts in YouTube Analytics, a detail that could confuse creators. However, YouTube’s broader strategy might be to shift more viewing into a full-screen, vertically-aligned feed, and these experiments could pave the way for that transition.