YouTube Shorts adds Collabs, live vertical video recommendations and new tools for creators

Google has introduced several new tools for YouTube Shorts, most of which draw inspiration from popular features on TikTok and Instagram Reels. The standout feature is the introduction of vertical video livestreaming, a response to TikTok's successful live video feature that went viral in July.

Additionally, YouTube Shorts now includes Collabs, allowing creators to make collaborative videos by reacting to other users' content in a side-by-side split screen format.

The platform also adds a Q&A sticker for creators to interact with their audience through the comments section. They will also have the ability to reply to comments with a Short video, continuing the conversation.

Other new features include the capacity to remix videos by automatically bundling both the audio and the effect from another video, save Shorts to playlists, and respond to comments with a Short video.

Lastly, Google is also providing new recomposition tools to convert horizontal videos into Shorts by adjusting the layout, zoom, and crop of the video segment.