In its third instalment of Release Notes, YouTube announced six new features to YouTube Shorts. The new features are geared towards making the YouTube Shorts more interactive, among them is the text-to-speech feature available on TikTok.
YouTube is pushing shorts and wants people to have the option to turn their regular videos into Shorts. As part of the announcement, a new Auto layout feature is coming to Android that lets users remix long-form videos into Shorts. In a blog post, creator liaison at YouTube, Rene Ritchie shared that the tool will “automatically track the main subject in your video as you’re turning it into a Short” and it will “dynamically pan, zoom, & crop to make sure Shorts look great.”
The second feature coming to YouTube Shorts is the text-to-speech option. When creators add text while making a Short, they will now see an “Add voice” icon in the top left that lets them choose from four different voices to turn the text into audio narration. Another feature coming to Shorts is the “Add Yours” sticker which is widely used on Meta’s Instagram. The sticker can now be added to Shorts similarly to the way it works on Instagram to keep the conversion going.
Other features coming to YouTube Shorts include two new Minecraft effects as part of Minecraft’s 15th anniversary, the ability to auto-generate captions with different colours and fonts, and a new update to the remix tool that lets creators remix an existing remix.
The new features will be rolling out over the next few weeks.
