YouTube Shorts are short, vertical videos up to 3 minutes long (previously up to 60 seconds before September 2024) meant for quick, mobile-first viewing. They are designed to be easy to consume and discover, playing automatically and looping, similar in style to TikTok videos or Instagram Reels but within the YouTube platform. Key features of YouTube Shorts include:

• Vertical format optimized for mobile.
• Duration up to 3 minutes.
• Autoplay and loop to keep viewers engaged.
• Swipe-to-next feature to quickly watch another Short.
• Appear in a dedicated Shorts feed, YouTube search, channel pages, and YouTube homepage.
• Easy creation tools including a Shorts camera in the YouTube app for quick recording and editing.
• Ability to add licensed music and captions.
• Shorts can grow audiences quickly as reach is not limited by subscriber count.
• Multiple video creation styles, including original videos, remixed long-form video clips, duets, replies, and green screen templates.

YouTube Shorts provide creators opportunities for quick content sharing, trend participation, behind-the-scenes clips, and engaging short tutorials or demos. They have become very popular, with billions of daily views, supporting new audience discovery and interaction on YouTube.

In summary, YouTube Shorts are YouTube's answer to short-form videos for fast, casual consumption on mobile devices within the larger YouTube ecosystem.