YouTube is experimenting with 15-second, multi-segment videos to counter TikTok

Shawn Knight

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Bottom line: YouTube is the preeminent platform for traditional video sharing but really, that doesn’t mean a whole lot as success in one style of video doesn’t guarantee similar results in another. YouTube has a massive user base and a solid marketing machine behind it but ultimately, it’ll be up to end-users to decide how far short-form video can go on the platform.

YouTube isn’t content to let TikTok ride off into the sunset with the lion’s share of the short-form video market.

The Google subsidiary this week announced it is testing a new multi-segment video feature with a select group of creators. Those with access to the new feature will see a “create new video” option in the mobile upload flow. Tap or hold the record button to capture your first clip. If you wish to add more to your compilation, simply rinse and repeat as necessary, up to a maximum of 15 seconds.

YouTube said it is conducting the experiment with a small group of users on Android and iOS platforms and will gather feedback as the pilot progresses. Presumably, if all goes well, the feature will be rolled out on a larger scale.

Many suspected short-form video would fade into obscurity following the discontinuation of Vine in late 2016 but that hasn’t been the case. Instead, competitors like Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok grabbed the proverbial baton and ran with it. And now, YouTube is looking to get in on the action.

Image credit: AlessandroBiascioli, PixieMe

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Will the legacy of VINE ever leave us?

I expected these super-short video clip fads to fizzle out like a bad fart.
 
Yes! Please slap more short content crap out there for kids and young adults to gobble up....it's not like their attention spans are short enough already.

You try talking to younger adults or kids these days? If you're not making an *** out of yourself to hold their attention, they quickly drift off and start staring at everything else in the room and stop listening - they might hear what you're saying, but they're not actually listening. They can't hold an attentive gaze with the person trying to talk with them.

All this instant gratification, short content-attention grabbing crap makes me sick.
 
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Yes! Please slap more short content crap out there for kids and young adults to gobble up....it's not like their attention spans are short enough already.

You try talking to younger adults or kids these days? If you're making an *** out of yourself to hold their attention, they quickly drift off and start staring at everything else in the room and stop listening - they might hear what you're saying, but they're not actually listening. They can't hold an attentive gaze with the person trying to talk with them.

All this instant gratification, short content-attention grabbing crap makes me sick.
Are you talking about little kids?
I hope you are because no one in my age range does that and the only people that do are the mentally handicapped people my age you're over exaggerating
 
Are you talking about little kids? I hope you are because no one in my age range does that and the only people that do are the mentally handicapped people my age you're over exaggerating
Sadly I do know people like that. When I spoke to a psychologist friend of mine the other day and we got talking about this, she described it as a symptom of growing up in a world where attention is almost constantly "taken" and not actually "given". Instead of digital devices being treated as tools, a lot of people have ended up like a mental pinball bounced around in a pinball machine and literally have underdeveloped focusing skills on par with small children.

Sadly it is a big problem which is why we've ended up with cr*p like this (link) where otherwise perfectly healthy people with a smartphone addiction require disability aids to cross a road (which even most deaf people don't require to that extent) precisely because they literally haven't learned to "give" attention to the road, and only react once is it "taken" via the sound of screeching brakes and screams.
 
In a sence, it's not too bad this whole tik tok thing cause at least in my experience with YouTube, I have conditioned myself to watching a series of short videos all up leading to at most 1 hour of content. I could be watching 2 hours or more watching a poorly made movie. My biggest concern is with the tiny screens of phones people watch/ stare at for prolonged periods of time. Thank God for wireless screen mirroring.
 
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