Shorts and long videos, working together

What makes a video a Short

A Short is a video up to 3 minutes long with a square or vertical shape ^[1].

You do not pick this yourself. Any square or vertical video up to 3 minutes, uploaded on or after 15 October 2024, is classified as a Short automatically. Videos uploaded before that date stay long videos ^[2].

If you want a video to stay a long video, upload it in a wider shape, such as 16:9 ^[2].

Before you upload a phone video, check two things: its shape and its length. A 2-minute vertical clip from the Ashadhi wari will become a Short. The same clip filmed with your phone turned sideways, in 16:9, will be a long video.

Shorts do not hurt your long videos

People watch a wider range of videos in the fast Shorts feed. So YouTube has built separate recommendation systems for Shorts and for long videos ^[4].

YouTube's Help page says Shorts performance does not hurt long video recommendations. Shorts can help new viewers find you, but they cannot hurt your video performance ^[3].

So a Short with few views will not pull down your next long video. Think of a Short as a small door into your channel. A stranger meets you for 40 seconds, and some of them may come back for the full video. Compare each Short only with your own past Shorts, never with big channels.

How YouTube decides who sees a Short

When your Short is shown to someone, YouTube looks at whether they choose to watch it or ignore it. Then it checks whether they stay, using the share of viewers who chose to watch, the average view duration and the average percentage viewed. Last, it checks whether viewers enjoyed the Short, using likes and surveys shown after watching ^[3].

Average view duration means how long people watched, on average. Average percentage viewed means how much of the Short they watched, on average. Lesson 10 shows you where to find these numbers.

YouTube says its system does not favour any format. It also says no minimum posting schedule is needed for your videos to do well, and suggests finding what works for your audience and your wellbeing ^[3].

A Short only needs to be as long as its idea. A tight 40-second Short that people watch to the end usually helps you more than a 3-minute one they leave early. Lesson 7 covers how often to post across all your videos.

YouTube's own tips for Shorts

YouTube's getting-started guide for Shorts says to grab attention in the first few seconds, so viewers do not scroll away. It also says to film vertical, in a 9:16 shape ^[5].

For the finishing touches, it suggests clear and engaging titles, relevant hashtags, and text on the screen to stress key points or add captions ^[5].

To grow, it suggests linking viewers to more of your content, such as your latest video, and replying to comments ^[5].

Write the on-screen text in your viewers' language, whether that is Marathi, Hindi, Hinglish or English. Many people scroll with the sound off, on a bus or in a quiet house, and the text helps them follow. Keep it short and large. Lesson 5 covers hooks in full.

The music trap

In plain words, a copyright claim means the owner of a song or clip has flagged your video for using it. Content ID is the system that spots these matches automatically. Lesson 12 covers it in full.

YouTube's Help page says a Short longer than one minute with an active copyright claim of any kind is blocked in every country. It cannot be played, is not recommended and cannot earn money. Your channel gets no penalty, and the Short can be watched again once the claim is resolved ^[2].

Rules like this one change from time to time. After you upload, check your Short's status in YouTube Studio. Whatever the current rule, a claim means you used something you do not own, so choose music you are allowed to use.

YouTube also warns that copyrighted material in a short video you made outside YouTube could lead to a Content ID claim ^[1].

For music, you can use songs from the Shorts Audio Library. Most can be used for up to 90 seconds in a 3-minute Short, but some are limited to 60 or 30 seconds. Copyright-safe music from the YouTube Studio Audio Library will not get a Content ID claim ^[2].

Music that other sites call "royalty-free" is not the same thing. Lesson 12 explains.

Film songs, cricket match clips and TV serial clips belong to someone else. A song playing in the background at a wedding or a Ganpati pandal can be claimed too. The safest audio is your own voice, your own sounds or Audio Library music. Lesson 12 covers claims, strikes and appeals in full.

Turn a long video into a Short

With Edit into a Short, you can turn up to 60 seconds of one of your own public long videos into a Short. In the YouTube app, go to the video's watch page, tap "Remix", then tap "Edit into a Short". The new Short links back to your original video ^[7].

Private and unlisted videos, and videos with third-party copyright claims, cannot be used. You also cannot add music or other sounds from the Audio Library to Shorts made this way ^[7].

Pick a moment that makes sense on its own: one tip, one reveal or one funny moment. If a viewer needs the first 5 minutes of the video to understand the clip, choose another one.

Link a Short to your full video

After you upload a Short, you can add a related video from your channel. It can be a long video, another Short or a live stream. Viewers see a clickable link below your channel handle in the Shorts player ^[6].

Adding a related video needs advanced feature access, and the video you pick must be public or unlisted. To add one, sign in to YouTube Studio, select "Content", click the Short, select a related video from your channel and click "Save" ^[6].

Advanced features are a set of extra YouTube Studio tools, and lesson 6 explains how to unlock them. If you do not have them yet, start with Edit into a Short from the section above.

Remixing, and other people's clips

Shorts you create are automatically opted in to remixing. Other creators can use your audio or a part of your video in their own Shorts, and remixed Shorts are credited back to the original work ^[8].

You can opt your Shorts out of video remixing. In YouTube Studio, click "Content", click a video, click "Show more", find "Shorts remixing", choose whether to allow remixing and click "Save" ^[8].

These steps are for YouTube Studio on a computer. Opting out is optional, so if you only have a phone, you can leave the default and change it later on a computer.

If you cannot find Edit into a Short for one of your videos, YouTube says to check that "Allow people to sample this content" is ticked under "Shorts remixing" for that video ^[7].

Sampling simply means letting other people reuse parts of your video.

Re-uploading other people's clips is a different matter from remixing. Lesson 2 covers originality and spam, and lesson 13 covers what it means for earning.