YouTube tests long-form videos on Shorts

YouTube is testing long-form video recommendations in select users' YouTube Shorts streams. This attempt is likely to encourage the finding of lengthier videos where users would ordinarily find short ones. The test is currently available to a limited number of users.

The test is detailed in a community post titled "Testing new content discovery features". It states that longer videos may appear on both the Watch Page and the Shorts stream.

Basically, testers will watch a variety of video formats, including shorter ones. So yet, YouTube has not said which users would receive the improved "discovery experience".

Google will also aggressively seek input on this pilot.

Of course, as you can see, such a test appears somewhat ironic, given that YouTube Shorts was developed in response to TikTok's increasing popularity with short videos.

It seems unusual to recommend lengthier YouTube videos in Shorts... after all, folks that look at Shorts are probably seeking for short videos anyhow... but we'll see how YouTube reacts to this experiment.