YouTube Shorts takes on TikTok with new 3-minute videos

Someone is watching YouTube shorts on their phone

YouTube has taken on TikTok again, announcing that Shorts can now be up to three minutes long.

TikTok released three-minute videos back in July 2021 and both fans and creators of the app were quick to take advantage of the new feature.

Now YouTube has decided to once again adopt the functions of Bytedance’s own app and extend the length of the Shorts videos to three minutes.

This change was announced on October 3, 2024 in a blog post from the Google-owned company.

“Longer shorts, more of you. Starting October 15th, you can upload shorts up to 3 minutes long. “This has been a most requested feature by developers, so we’re excited to offer you more flexibility in telling your story,” it said.

“This change applies to videos whose aspect ratio is square or higher and will not affect videos you uploaded before October 15th. And we will work to improve recommendations for longer shorts in the coming months.”

Viewers and YouTube creators quickly flooded social media with their thoughts on the extended length, and it’s safe to say many of them are thrilled.

“Very exciting! YouTube Shorts goes from the restrictive maximum length of 60 seconds to 180 seconds! Most of my content fits between 1 and 3 minutes, so this is perfect!” said tech TikToker DaPoets.

Another said: “Beautiful! My shorts always last a little over a minute. Hard to shorten to 59 seconds.”

A third user pointed out that a video on TikTok must be longer than a minute to be monetized. This meant that when they cross-posted the clip to YouTube Shorts, they had to edit out some parts. Now they don’t have to do that anymore.

This comes just weeks after YouTube announced its latest round of improvements to the site. The Google-owned company introduced vertical livestream gifts back in September as a new way to support your favorite creators.