YouTube has announced that it is now letting creators use video clips from billions of YouTube videos for their Shorts, the company announced in a blog post. YouTube Shorts are the Google-owned video platform’s TikTok and Instagram Reels-like short videos. These are limited to a 60-second duration and now, creators can splice 1 to 5 second segments from eligible long-form videos and Shorts to use in their short-form videos. Previously, creators were only able to splice short audio clips from other videos on the platform.
When a user creates a short using a clip from another video, the original video is credited via a link. The library for available videos for remixing is vast, but creators have the option to exclude their content from being remixed. The new feature is currently only rolling out for iOS users, and Android users are expected to get it later this year.
Allowing creators access to billions of YouTube videos is a significant step. This could open potential for creators to profit if their content goes viral and is remixed by others on YouTube. The company also announced that Shorts are now available to watch on the YouTube website as well as YouTube on tablets.
A recent report said that YouTube has lost over $2 billion in ad revenue due to Apple’s App Tracking Transparency feature that does not allow apps to track users across websites and apps. Apple’s App Tracking Transparency feature that came with iOS 14.5 also bans developers from offering users perks or rewards for enabling the feature.