Merging Shorts and longer videos into one feed?

YouTube is experimenting with combining short and long videos into a single feed. This new experiment, currently being tested on a small group of users, could potentially change viewing behavior on the platform.

What’s happening?

YouTube, who is always looking for ways to improve the platform for their viewers, is currently testing a new feature in which both short and long videos are shown in a single feed instead of just Shorts. This experiment aims to leverage the popularity of Shorts, which generates 70 billion daily views worldwide, to give longer videos more visibility as well. Although the idea seems contradictory at first -combining long, horizontal videos with short, vertical shorts-this experiment may cause viewers to discover more content.

Vertical versus horizontal?

One of the challenges with this experiment is integrating horizontal, longer videos into a vertically oriented feed. While this may make for a strange user experience, YouTube is confident that this experiment will provide valuable insights. Moreover, YouTube emphasizes that this is just one of many experiments the platform is conducting to optimize viewing behavior. Users who participate in these tests are encouraged to provide feedback so that YouTube can decide how and when to roll out these features more broadly.

YouTube’s experiment raises some questions about the direction of the platform. Is this a latest attempt to further boost the popularity of Shorts, or is it a strategy to give longer videos more attention?

What does this mean for social media creators?

For content creators, it means that their long videos may be shown and measured in new ways in YouTube Analytics, because long videos viewed in the Shorts Feed will be counted as Shorts views. While this may be confusing, it may also present new opportunities for creators to increase their reach.