YouTube Is Testing Long-Form Videos in the Shorts Feed

YouTube

YouTube is testing new content discovery experiences across the Watch Page and Shorts.

Viewers included in the experiment may notice a mix of video formats appearing in different places. For example, they might encounter a long-form video in the Shorts feed or new feeds featuring long-form video. In the case of a long-form video showing up in Shorts, creators could see metrics attributed to the Shorts feed in their Analytics for this video.

In addition to these changes, videos will continue to be eligible to be recommended to viewers across YouTube.

Why It Matters: Through this test, YouTube aims to help viewers discover more content across creators, formats, and lengths by tapping into the benefits of different experiences. For example, the Shorts feed gets over 70 billion views per day, so by serving long-form videos in this feed, it has the potential to expose viewers to creators and content they may not normally consume.

This experiment isn’t entirely random, as YouTube recently started showing live streams in the Shorts feed, similar to what TikTok does on the For You Page. In addition, other platforms like Instagram are testing out showing different formats in feeds dedicated to other content, like how Carousels have been showing up in the Reels tab.