As YouTube competes with TikTok, Shorts will be improving its system on television as the streaming platform utilizes horizontal spaces when playing a video.
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ISTANBUL, TURKEY - MARCH 23: The YouTube and Netflix app logos are seen on a television screen on March 23, 2018 in Istanbul, Turkey. The Government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan passed a new law on March 22 extending the reach of the country's radio and TV censor to the internet.
ISTANBUL, TURKEY - MARCH 23: The YouTube and Netflix app logos are seen on a television screen on March 23, 2018 in Istanbul, Turkey. The Government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan passed a new law on March 22 extending the reach of the country's radio and TV censor to the internet.
YouTube Shorts on TV
Users can now watch YouTube Shorts on TV without minding the wasted horizontal on the sides. Based on a report from Engadget, the streaming platform will be expanding its features on TVs and will begin to roll out worldwide starting November 7th. This will be available on smart television made from 2019 onwards, including updated and newer gamer consoles and other living room media devices.
With the help of product managers, engineers, designers, and researchers, this feature will make the users' experience consistent with mobile devices and natural on the bigger screen.
Expansion Reasons
As the company conducted research regarding YouTube Shorts, the company found out that people want to explore watching Shorts on TV. With that, the company extended its efforts to preserve the feature even on TV and make it natural to the eyes of the people. YouTube TV Director of Product Management Kurt Wilms said that "Users want another way to experience Shorts, by relaxing on the couch and watching them with friends. It also helps with mobile-phone fatigue to watch on another screen."
Two prototypes were tested by the company before releasing it which are the simple prototype that has sidebars and basic functionality, and the maximal prototype where the functionality can be seen immediately on the screen including related tags and comments, and a color-sampled blurred background.
According to Variety's report, the idea of bringing YouTube Shorts on TV was not an "if" question but a "when." YouTube Shorts Creation and Community Team Senior Director of Product Management stated that this has been in the works for quite some time now. As they expand on a new setup, Shorts will still be continuing its operation on mobile. She expects this to boost the feature as she stated, "bringing content to the living room always brings in new audiences."
Despite this feature being a hit with 1.5 billion people watching Shorts, it did not work for some of YouTube's audience. When the platform introduced this feature to desktops on their shelves and recommendations, people builds extensions for this to remove. Because of this, the streaming platform made a separate tab for YouTube Shorts and is now treated like another part of the application.
The Verge also reported that the team also wants to improve the system on TV and it seems like this could turn Shorts into having its own homepage that is more immersive and more interactive.
Related Article: YouTube Shorts Bring Voiceover Narration to Videos, Other Features Coming-Similar to TikTok
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Written by Inno Flores
