YouTube begins showing Shorts on TV

YouTube tries to compete with TikTok by improving YouTube Shorts. The recent update lets people watch these brief videos on television screens.

The Google-owned platform knows that short-form content is a burgeoning global trend. Consequently, YouTube and other companies follow TikTok’s example.

It took significant planning to create the proper user interface and features for YouTube shorts. Yet, YouTube sees more ways to improve Shorts.

How YouTube Shorts work on TV

Photo Credit: www.protocol.com

The video platform’s mobile app has a dedicated tab for short-form content. It is at the bottom of the screen, next to the Home and Post buttons. 

You may watch YouTube Shorts on a television if it is a smart TV from 2019 or later. Also, you need a streaming device like a smartphone, tablet, smart home hub, or gaming console.

The platform took time to plan how the UI would function. For example, YouTube Shorts product manager Todd Sherman tried many ways of playing seconds-long videos on a large landscape screen.

He said, “I think for videos that are particularly short, within short-form, oftentimes looping is beneficial because you really need more than one watch to get the value out of it.”

Yet, Sherman explained that 60-second videos must “have a beginning, a middle, and an end… and typically, you don’t want to loop those quite as much.”

An initial version of the Shorts UI worked like a side-scrolling lineup of brief clips. On the other hand, another iteration placed YouTube Shorts in the middle of the screen.

The Shorts team decided to use the latter. Now, the group wants to add features. For example, Sherman and the members want to facilitate converting long-form videos into short ones and vice-versa. 

They also want YouTube Shorts to help users find the music used in the short-form content. As a result, the platform could encourage music discovery like Spotify.

Sherman and his team may turn Shorts into the new YouTube homepage. It should help people explore other content and parts of the platform.

Conclusion

You may play YouTube Shorts on your TV screen. That could be a convenient upgrade if you watch long-form content on a large display. 

You may want to try using a mounted PC monitor for vertical orientation. As a result, you can watch Shorts as you do on mobile devices.

You could also get a Roku or Apple TV with a preinstalled YouTube app. Moreover, you can get more gadget updates from Inquirer Tech.