Google Discover has come a long way from the time it was launched. In August, the service started surfacing “Short videos” to join webpages, regular videos, and later AMP-based Web Stories.
For its next-month beta update, the Android maker will be testing YouTube shorts and other short content for its Discover service. According to sources, the cards will feature the YouTube play logo in the top-left corner, while the video title and “YouTube” appear below.
Tapping on the card immediately opens the YouTube app, and a new fullscreen player where you can like/dislike, see comments, share, and see “More” — Description, Report, or Send feedback, will appear. But there won’t any seek bar to control play and pause.
“YouTube Shorts” are up to 15 seconds long and created using a “Shorts camera” that’s currently only available in India. To access the camera, go to the Create menu in the YouTube app’s bottom bar; this new “short-form video creation tool” lets you select music, adjust speed, and set a hands-free Countdown timer while recording.
Reports indicate that YouTube encourages all creators to upload short vertical videos that are up to 60 seconds and tagged with #Shorts in the title or description. Those videos will be shown in Google Discover.
As for now, Google Discover shows regular YouTube content as full cards, and the addition of Shorts will help boost the beta format. Google said the “the YouTube Shorts player is now receiving more than 3.5 billion daily views globally.”
Google Discover’s Short videos carousel with YouTube is still in testing and not yet widely rolled out.
