YouTube Shorts adds TikTok-style edits

All social media platforms become one.
By
Christianna Silva
 on 
A YouTube shorts logo is seen displayed on a smartphone with a YouTube Logo in the background.
YouTube Shorts gets new edit features Credit: Photo Illustration by Avishek Das/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

One of the many tools that sets TikTok apart from its competitors is how easy it is to edit videos both in the app and by using its sister app, CapCut. However, other short-form social media apps are working to catch up. First, we heard news that Instagram is working on a CapCut-like video editing app. Now, YouTube is adding features to Shorts to make it easier to edit short-form videos within the app.

YouTube announced the new video editing tool in a blog post on Thursday. The tool will allow users to "make precise adjustments and edits" within the app, including the ability to rearrange clips, delete clips, add music, add timed text, zoom in and out, and preview Shorts before posting.

It looks like templates on Shorts will also resemble CapCut and Instagram Reels, allowing users to pull photos to use in templates automatically and crediting the original creator.

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"These are the first of more improvements planned to streamline in-app editing for Shorts," YouTube wrote.

Among those planned improvements are an edit tool that will sync videos to the beat of a song, template effects, image stickers, and AI stickers users can add by responding to a text prompt.

Topics YouTube

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Christianna Silva
Senior Culture Reporter

Christianna Silva is a senior culture reporter covering social platforms and the creator economy, with a focus on the intersection of social media, politics, and the economic systems that govern us. Since joining Mashable in 2021, they have reported extensively on meme creators, content moderation, and the nature of online creation under capitalism.

Before joining Mashable, they worked as an editor at NPR and MTV News, a reporter at Teen Vogue and VICE News, and as a stablehand at a mini-horse farm. You can follow her on Bluesky @christiannaj.bsky.social and Instagram @christianna_j.


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