YouTube is developing its most recent feature, which turned every publicly available YouTube video into possible material for its YouTube Shorts rival, TikTok. As of today, users will be able to utilize a maximum of a 60-second video segment from any accepted YouTube video or YouTube Short as the background for their brand-new original Shorts film thanks to the company’s new “Green Screen” feature. The feature joins a number of other effects that are currently accessible to YouTube Shorts creators, such as the appearance-smoothing Retouch feature, a Lighting feature to enhance dark environments, an Align feature to align the subject from the last frame of a video with a new video, a text and timeline editor to add messages over top videos, various video filters, and, most recently, Cut — the tool that essentially made all of YouTube’s public content possible Shorts material.
The new Green Screen remix tool may be used with any public YouTube video, just like with Cut, unless the author has chosen not to allow it. Music videos featuring copyrighted content from YouTube partners or other parties with visual claims are the sole exception to this rule. A link back to the original content producer is included in every video made using Green Screen, much like with Cut, to provide proper acknowledgement. According to the manufacturer, iOS users may utilize the Green Screen function in the Shorts camera to select any image or video from their device library as the background.
As the battle with TikTok intensifies, YouTube decided to provide users the option to remix the videos on its site. It’s noteworthy that the functionality is now opt-out by default, which means that videos are practically free to use unless the producer specifies otherwise. As some artists believe that Shorts is just another means to get their channel found or are generally unconcerned about Shorts cutting into their own following because it offers a new kind of viewing experience, there hasn’t been much of a response to this choice thus far.
Green Screen makes sense as the following new video effect for Shorts given the interaction with YouTube content. Similar functionality is frequently utilized on TikTok to enable creators to discuss and link to each other’s work. However, in the case of Shorts, the original video producer may simply create long-form material for YouTube itself and isn’t necessary a Shorts creator as well. The individual whose video is being cited could not even be a member of the Shorts community, which could diminish the usefulness of the Green Screen function as a tool for community discussion. According to Google, the new Green Screen feature is now rolling out on iOS and will soon be available on Android.
When asked why it prioritized iOS over Google’s own mobile platform, YouTube merely said that it prioritized the need to deploy new features rapidly. A spokeswoman added, “Our aim is providing our creators with the greatest experience as rapidly as possible, and sometimes that involves releasing certain features to one platform before another.” The launch of Green Screen comes after a more challenging quarter for YouTube, during which the company’s ad revenue was expected to total $7.51 billion but only reached $6.87 billion instead. YouTube attributed this to the pandemic’s lasting effects and said that the slower increase is more a reflection of the gains made the previous year. Additionally, it stated that Shorts was now producing 30 billion views every day at the time.
